Jailbreaking The iPhone: Pros & Cons

Posted 27th July 2010 by Daniel

For as long as the iPhone has been around, there have been those who have tried to do more with it than what Apple are offering to them. They go about doing this by “Jailbreaking” the phone, to allow apps that have not been approved by Apple.

But why do this? Surely with the amount of apps at hand for users, such a step would be unnecessary? Then again there are no limits to what you can have on your phone, especially if you want to personally create apps yourself.

Let’s take a look at the Pros and Cons of Jailbreaking and iPhone.

Firstly the Pros – Many people are unhappy with how strict Apple can be when it comes to allowing Apps to be put onto their store. They argue that keeping a sense of control maintains quality and a steady experience. With the length of time it takes to bring out new features for the iPhone and the fact that it requires buying the new model in a lot of cases a lot of people feel like they are being held back. Apple understandably don’t approve of jailbreaking but with a new US law stating that iPhone owners can do so for “educational purposes”, the rules against it are likely to become a lot more relaxed.

On top of this, we have the fact that the User Interface can be totally customised and you can download all the third party apps you want. With the UI editing you were able to change the homescreen long before Apple allowed you to and a number of alternative skins were made available for apps. Unofficial app stores have come to the forefront for Jailbroken iPhone’s instead of the original. A lot of apps that were originally disallowed by Apple and designed for Jailbroken versions have been remade and allowed by Apple to try and combat the amount of people who use it.

And Now the Cons – The ability to get a worm from downloading dodgy apps applies to Jailbroken iPhone’s. To date, nothing overly malicious has appeared, but it is surely just a matter of time. One of the backlashes from Apple has been their introduction of a void warranty should you Jailbreak your iPhone. So if you jailbreak it, and a hardware problem ensues for example, they will refuse to help you out. Should you restore a backup, you could avoid this problem but it may be impossible should it be a severe hardware problem.

Updating can become a problem, as they will render your Jailbroken apps and features as useless until an update from the Jailbroken Dev Team goes into effect. Your personal data can be at risk from people on the same network too due to the security features being removed. This can be combated by introducing an alternative password in some cases but it’s a risk none the less. And with increased instability in the form of crashing and slower processing along with the fear of it crashing altogether and the financial cost of replacing it, the cons certainly seem to pile up.

Jailbreaking is not for me but I can see why a lot of people would see it as an interesting option, giving that you can further personalise your phone and the options it gives you but the potential repercussions mean that a lot of things can wrong for you easily. With the release of the iPhone 4 and the OS 4.0, a lot has been updated which maybe cancels out a lot of what jailbreaking is there to do, but it also maybe gives the developers a better platform on which to make Jailbroken apps. I’m sure we will find out soon as the ever changing world of the iPhone moves into the future.

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