Microsoft Reportedly Considering Blacklisting Windows Phone Unlockers

From DailyTech: The admission of a top Windows Phone executive that the company is "following in Apple's line" appears increasingly true. The newly released Windows Phone 7 OS lacks certain features found in other phones on the market, much like the iPhone long did. But like the iPhone it sports a slick interface that has convinced some buyers to look past its shortcomings.

And it appears that the pair may soon share a common war against the unlocking community.

Just hours after Rafael Rivera, Long Zheng and Chris Walsh released the first jailbreaking tool for the phone they have come under fire for their work both by developers and Microsoft itself.

Zheng, et al's program, ChevronWP7, is billed as a "unlocking" tool that allows unauthorized third party apps to run on Windows Phone 7 handsets. That distinction is a bit confusing as this is commonly referred to as "jailbreaking" on the iPhone, while removing carrier restrictions is known as "unlocking".

Semantic confusion aside, the purpose is relatively straightforward. Zheng, et al say that the tool will allow the homebrew community the ability to develop for the platform, without paying for licensing or official development tools (typically Microsoft requires developers to pay a $99 annual fee to side load apps with private APIs). However, some developers seem upset with the move as they believe that it opens the door to pirated apps.

Windows Phone 7 developer Michael Crump offers a complaint along those lines. He recently posted on Twitter, "It sucks that most people will be using the ChevronWP7 for piracy. They could care less about developing apps."

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