So the general story, in many people’s eyes, is supposed to go like this – music companies are bad, and Apple is good, because Apple has not only embraced digital music sales, Steve Jobs has said he’d fully support DRM free music. More specifically, Steve’s Thoughts on Music web letter from February 6th 2007 said:

Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.  Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.

How nice of Apple to think this way, and support an open, interoperable marketplace. But now let’s look at what Apple’s saying about what’s going to happen to people (or more specifically, to people’s iPhones) that have been unlocked to use a variety of different software programs (can you say interoperable?):

Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.

Um, right – the unlocking programs cause irreparable damage, which will be revealed at the exact moment when future Apple-supplied software updates are installed. Doesn’t that sound a little like Apple-supplied software will disable the phones of anyone that dared unlock it? Did they get interoperable and inoperable confused, or what’s going on here?

Well, to quote Steve Jobs on this issue:

It’s a constant cat and mouse game. We try to stay ahead. People will try to break in, and it’s our job to stop them breaking in.

Huh. Alternatively, of course, Apple’s job could be to make amazing electronics and embrace an open developer community to further enhance their products and experiences. Or maybe turn the iPhone into a platform. There’s lots and lots of alternative “jobs” that Apple can be doing that don’t involve sabotaging products customers bought from them.

I’ve been waiting for a backlash on Apple for some time – they seem to have quite the ability to walk many thin lines at once, and rarely get called on actions that companies like Microsoft would get hung out to dry on. I wonder if intentionally disabling phones of a huge group of fanatical customers might finally do it?