Consumers Want Unlocked Phones
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The Apple iPhone controversy has raised consumer awareness about the issue of locked cell phones--and that's a good thing.
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Unlocked and loaded Efforts to open up the functionality of Apple's iPhone to users disinclined to sign up to expensive two year contracts with AT&amp;T are growing.â¦
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In the Internet age, making telephone contact with a human for customer service is a daunting task. But some consumers have found ways around the blockade.
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Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c60344)  has announced the addition of Worldwide Demand for Wi-Fi/Cellular Combo  Phones to their offering.
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Consumers planning to buy the iPhone at the end of the month will need an iTunes Store account to activate the device.
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Price and coverage are the key issues affecting mobile users, a survey of European consumers finds.
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Despite company's attempts to make life harder for the unlocking community, the number of unlocked iPhones appears to be soaring.
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Petitions federal agency to open up the mobile phone industry to "unlocked" devices and third-party applications--such as Skype.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Billboard) - Despite all the dramatic   advancements that the mobile entertainment industry has made,   there is a still one important ingredient it has not obtained:   customers.
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(InfoWorld) - Efforts to unlock Apple's iPhoneÂ continued on Monday, with hackers claiming "very significant progress." The locked iPhone only works with AT&T's EDGE network, and cannot be used with cellular service from other providers. Locked phones are generally used to help operators recoup the cost of subsidizing handsets for their customers, but AT&T is not subsidizing the iPhone, which is priced at either $499 or $599, depending on the model. Instead, the phone is locked because AT&T has a five-year agreement with Apple to be the sole iPhone provider in the U.S. Unlocking the iPhoneÂ would be a boon for users locked into a contract with another U.S. carrier, or for users outside the U.S. who want an iPhone. While initial signs indicate an unlocked iPhone is possible, hackers must first overcome several challenges. One of those involves circumventing the authentication process in iTunes that both lets users register for an AT&T service plan and turn on the phone's features, including its camera and music player. By Monday evening, U.S. time, hackers had made headway towards circumventing the activation process. But the phone remained locked at the time of writing. "We have been fairly successful in spoofing iTunes activation processes. This should allow us to activate the phone," poster gj wrote on the iPhone Dev Wiki, one of several Web sites tracking efforts to unlock the phone. "It may in fact also prevent the SIM locking from occurring in the first place ... though we haven't verified this yet." These advances allowed hackers to set and read data on the iPhone, including the ability to query whether a phone has been activated. "The rest of our work is legwork really, in understanding how certain functions operate with the rest of the phone," the site said, adding hackers are close to the ability to browse system files on the iPhone, a key step toward unlocking the handset. Once the activation problem has been overcome, hackers will be faced with other questions. For instance, does iTunes have the ability to recognize a phone that was not activated for use with the AT&T network? If so, how will iTunes react? After these questions are resolved, hackers can focus on unlocking the handset itself. That task is made easier by the iPhone's use of a removable SIM (Subscriber Identity Module), a smart card that contains a user's phone number as well as storage space for contacts and messages, instead of one that was hardwired into the phone. The use of a removable SIM card means the iPhone is locked using its firmware, which can likely be cracked. While hackers race ahead to unlock the iPhone as quickly as possible, iPhone Dev Wiki poster gj criticized those hackers competing against each other to unlock the phone, saying the lack of cooperation had slowed progress. "I can't emphasize enough how much this s*** stinks. Trust me, your ego is not as important as you think it is. If everyone worked together we would have been done by now, but instead we have a******* all over the world trying to 'beat us to the punch,'" the poster wrote. Â
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Apple warned that iPhone owners who have used unauthorized programs to unlock the cellular service feature of their handsets may end up with a phone that does not work.
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The use of mobile phones in emerging markets is growing but people are using their phones for more than just talking.
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HONG KONG -- Consumers have been promised a lot from the high-speed 3G (third generation) cellular networks being rolled out around the world, but is there much in it for businesses?
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A reality show or soap opera on your mobile phone? This is the vision of top telecoms firms as they hope that from 2006 consumers will sign up for new phones that can receive digital television signals.
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Now that Apple Inc.&#39;s iPhone is finally on sale, the race is on to see who can unlock it.
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Consumers aren't willing to pay what Apple Inc. may ask for the iPhone but if the price drops they'll switch their mobile service to AT&amp;T Inc. in order to get it, according to results of a survey released Thursday.
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For the millions of mobile-phone users buying fancier and more complicated phones these days - particularly in Asia, where the most cutting-edge phones often are introduced â-he old model of cellphone service is getting a reboot.