An Apple software update is disabling iPhones that have been unlocked by owners who wanted to choose which mobile network to use.

Earlier this week Apple said a planned update would leave the device “permanently inoperable”.

Thousands of iPhone owners hacked their expensive gadget in order to unlock it for use with other mobile carriers and to run a host of unsupported programs.

There are also reports of the update causing issues with unaltered iPhones.

On Monday Apple issued a statement in which it said many of the unauthorised iPhone unlocking programs caused “irreparable damage” to the device’s software.

The company said this would “likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed”.

That warning has now proved correct as many owners are reporting their phones no longer work following installation of the update.

Apple requires iPhone owners to take out a lengthy contract with AT&T in the United States but there are a number of programs on the net that unlock the device for use with other networks.

Some owners are reporting on technology blogs and Apple’s own forums that the update is deleting contacts information, as well as photos and music, on iPhones that have not been modified in any way.

Source: BBC News.

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I didn’t really expect this to happen, it’s not that what happened was totally unexpected, it’s just that all these news and cracks seemed to have put an end to apple and AT&T’s corporation.

It is very usual that the companies fight back to put an end to users cracking or miss using their products but it is not usual that they actually put an end to it like this.

Right now, I’m happy that I haven’t bought an iPhone and cracked it without thinking of the consequences.

We will have to wait and see more reactions from the European and the Jordanian telecoms markets, we will also see what will happen with Moey’s iPhone business and if the prices on the iPhones will change.