Not long after Microsoft released its Windows Phone 7 platform, a “jailbreak” was released in the form of ChevronWP7. This tool made it easy to unlock any Windows Phone 7 smartphone, and then side-load applications that are not available in Microsoft’s app marketplace. With an upcoming update, though, this phone unlocking will be disabled, and as the developers have ceased development, there’s going to be no quick work-around.
Whether or not Microsoft “paid off” these developers is unknown, but it could be that they simply lost interested in what they were doing. However, for those who are using jailbroken phones and want to keep it that way, then it looks like they’ll be out of luck. Unless of course another developer comes along and wants to redo the work done by the ChevronWP7 team.
I do find this move rather interesting, because given that Microsoft’s WP7 app store pales in comparison to its competition in terms of the total number of useful apps, you’d almost imagine that the company wouldn’t stress too much over something so simple. If people want to run custom apps on their WP7 phone, at least they are using a WP7 phone!
The iPhone is far from being a difficult phone to jailbreak, and it’s also hugely successful. Perhaps Microsoft should work to make its own phone better and more successful before thwarting something that can’t possibly be affecting sales. Limiting what mobile enthusiasts can do with their phone can’t be a good business plan.
In the first update to Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is planning to block ChevronWP7, which allowed users to unlock any retail Windows Phone 7 device for application side-loading without having to pay $99 per year for a WP7 marketplace account. The update, which is slated for release this month, will also introduce copy and paste functionality, among other improvements.