Major Corporations Turn Attention to Jailbreak Scene

[Kyle Matthews]

In July of last year, the Federal Government brought some clarification to a previously much-debated question and declared jailbreaking legal. Millions of folks who'd jailbroken their iDevices rejoiced, but aside from that not much changed visibly.

Now, however, we are beginning to see signs pointing to the legitimization of the jailbreak community in big business' eyes. With millions of iDevices in circulation, and over 4-5 million active jailbreakers (that number being the amount of individual devices which have logged into Cydia in the past week), major corporations have largely been ignoring this major niche market. We're beginning to see that change. I got some rough numbers from saurik, who says 8-9% of iDevice users are jailbroken, 1.5 million unique users log into Cydia daily, 4-5 million weekly. By his estimate, there are 10-15 million jailbroken iDevices out there. He notes he'll have better stats soon due to his new database statistics structure.

Scion, a brand of vehicles manufactured by Toyota, recently developed a custom iPhone theme specifically for jailbroken devices, submitting it to us for hosting in Cydia (full disclosure: they are also running an ad campaign through ModMyi.com within Cydia pointing to said theme, and this article is unrelated to that). Search Scion 2011 Theme in Cydia to find it. This is the first major corporation we have seen put direct positive attention into the jailbreak scene, developing specifically for it and addressing this large userbase. Could this be a turning of the tide for the previously "outlaw" jailbreak community?

There's tons of obvious plays for the market available. Amazon has started their /own/ [ame="http://www.amazon.com/mobile-apps/b/ref=topnav_storetab_mas?ie=UTF8&node=2350149011"]Android AppStore[/ame], aside from Android's own store. Adobe has been going around and around with Apple for years trying to get Flash on these devices, losing out on a huge amount of the mobile market share. There's an extremely viable option in the jailbreak community for them to develop and release here, as it's obvious Apple won't be relenting anytime soon. Flash purposefully wasn't even included on the latest Macbook Airs ([ame]http://modmyi.com/forums/mac-news/734107-apple-no-preinstalled-flash-macs.html[/ame]). Cydia essentially has the entire market of jailbreak - what if many companies, sports teams, and schools had their own themes in Cydia as well as their apps already in the AppStore?

There is a huge market in the jailbreak community being ignored by big business, assumedly because of the association with terms like "hacker" and Apple's very public previous anti-jailbreak stance. Apple remains anti-jailbreak, stating it "may" void your warranty. Note - they do not state it "does" void your warranty - they know they won't win in court if they try to deny someone a warranty from a fault which had nothing to do with the actual jailbreaking (ie, hardware failure).

iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads are extremely powerful mobile computers. Apple's iOS is the best mobile OS - so why do we have restricted devices? Apple touts the security of OS X just as much as iOS - yet OS X computers allow us full access. No other personal computers have these sandbox restrictions (not even Macs), and for major corporations to be able to develop without constraint for the iDevices would be beneficial to all of us. There's a giant market which is being largely ignored. Cydia is awesomely poised to be a great avenue for say, Flash. If a user chooses to jailbreak their device, so be it. Or even better - if no jailbreak was needed and Apple shipped a device we could fully access just like all our other computers. The line between mobile phone and computer has been blurred for years, and is only becoming more so.

[awesomeSlayer]

Wow! I didn't even think this is going to happen. Maybe in the future, great things will start to happen.

[weeman247]

This had to happen. Apple should really except the inevitable, jailbreaking will happen no matter what. They must know that many of their devices are sold on the fact that they are jailbreakable. My answer to apple is employ the brains behind the jailbreaks and hacks and manufacture your phones the way we want them. One's we can mod, customize etc.

[EskimoRuler]

Yea this is great news. That would be cool to have Sporte teams making themes. It's going to take more than just scion to make apple be more forgiving about jail breaking. But I still feel that apple will never back down

[LastSonOfKrypton]

I wouldn't own an iPhone if I couldn't jailbreak it. They are a cool device for a day or two but after that you begin to realize all the functionality Apple doesn't give you which other OS' have stock. It's sad.

[aimetti]

I wouldn't own an iPhone if I couldn't jailbreak it. They are a cool device for a day or two but after that you begin to realize all the functionality Apple doesn't give you which other OS' have stock. It's sad.

i second this.

without jailbreak the phone is boring and dull, but with it I dont bother with any other phone.

[StealthBravo]

We are still a small percentage

[Nickaroni22]

That's some crazy news there, jailbreaking is legal, why not use it for advertisement.

[moon#pie]

Yep, SB is right. Anyway, most of the people that are all "OMG!!! I NEED A JAILBREAK" are just using it to get cracked apps.

[klouud]

I would totally pay for a flash app in Cydia - I'd pay up to $25 for it.

[i3urger]

If anything I don't want ads popping out in Cydia. Cydia has been so anti-ad (except April 1) with the **** bar or whatever it's called. I like how I can look for anything I want and I can avoid clicking on an ad until I open to a package.

[Kyle Matthews]

We are still a small percentage

JB is to stock as Mac is to Windows.

[moon#pie]

Ratio wise, you're about right.

[Amraam]

Because windows is better

Flame suit on

[moon#pie]

Because windows is better

Flame suit on

Windows let your neighbors see you naked unless you put up curtains ($100 a year virus protection).

[Amraam]

Windows let your neighbors see you naked unless you put up curtains ($100 a year virus protection).

Microsoft Security Essentials = free. Never had single virus get through.

[moon#pie]

For basic's, it's fine. Back on topic please.

[whereswaldo]

If devs alone at home can do so much, i wonder how many great things big companies can do!

[lighter]

The only reason I don't see big companies jumping all over this is because it relies on a JB to start off with. Now if you look at it... these days this JB's are starting to take longer and longer to come out and if a company is relying on this to make them money but now have to wait for someone to "hack" the device... well your business is on hold... just a thought...

[moon#pie]

If devs alone at home can do so much, i wonder how many great things big companies can do!

Probably not much more, seeing as they will just turn to the devs. But it could mean cheaper better stuff because devs are on a company's payroll