When purchasing an iPhone, there are a few things to take into consideration especially if you are not currently with a phone carrier. This is important because most iPhones these days can only be purchased through a carrier and this makes the phone locked only to that network. You do have the option to purchase a phone directly from the
Apple Store but it can be very pricy and does not come with the discount benefits normally with contract activation. The disadvantage of owning an iPhone and than not being to use it with different phone networks was a huge disadvantage so finding a system to unlock these phones was created. The answer to “Can you unlock iPhones?” is very simple because “YES” it is possible, however there are several disadvantages that come with performing an iPhone unlock on your phone. Let’s first start by exploring the obvious: It’s illegal.
Apple iPhone is only available through phone carriers and has been locked to specific networks. Apple has just licensed the phone carrier to sell the phone and the software which is installed on the iPhone. However, since you do not actually own the software and it is licensed, than for you to make changes to the software are considered illegal. You should not be doing it because it is direct violation of the end user licensing policy. Secondly, unlocking an iPhone makes the phone run a lot slower because you again have made changes to the software by unlocking the phone. It has been tweaked and fine tuned to work on a specific phone network so you have basically de-tuned the software which affects the quality of the phone.
Getting your iPhone unlocked causes a headache when referring to hardware warranty because any change to the software cancels your warranty. When you purchase a phone, you are covered under the warranty for the phone “as is” when bought from the provider. If you are making changes to the software, you have changed the way the phone was given to you by your provider and they will not cover the phone with the changes. This is a huge disadvantage especially since the iPhone is a $500 + phone. Imagine something happens to the phone and you are no longer covered under the warranty, this will be a huge loss of money. With a purchase of an Apple iPhone you are eligible for several automatic software updates. These updates will give you new and improved software tweaks that not only make the phone safer but even make the performance faster. If you get your iPhone unlocked and then try to apply an update to your phone, it will in most cases get locked again. The updates that it will apply are engineered for a ”locked” phone so many people who do have their iPhone unlocked will not be benefiting from many of the updates.
As of January 2013, having you Apple iPhone unlocked will be “almost” illegal because of the first factor which is that you are manipulating software that you do not own. The word “almost” is used because the only condition in which you will be able to get your phone unlocked will be by asking permission through your phone carrier who will than complete the paperwork and reference it to Apple.