Everyone loves a David and Goliath story, even if David is 17-year-old American George Hotz and Goliath is the techie’s multinational of choice, Apple.
Apple’s iPhone launched a few weeks ago in a veritable thunderstorm of publicity, so it is with a certain schadenfreude we learnt that George, not without a streak of entrepreneurial stubbornness, promptly took to his bedroom with a soldering iron, emerging triumphant 500 hours later having unlocked the phone.
Apple signed an exclusive deal meaning the iPhone can only be used with AT&T, but George’s blog soon revealed to other envious geeks the news that his iPhone now works with his parents’ T-Mobile SIM card. George traded the phone in for a $30,000 car, and is now starting college under the auspicious star of his very own 15 minutes of fame.
It is not known what Apple’s response to the achievement will be, but it’s unlikely young George is Steve Jobs’ favourite person, after he took advantage of the power of the internet to post instructions to other iPhone users about how to circumvent Apple’s AT&T arrangement.
The moral of this tale? Big business can’t always beat the individual, and never underestimate the power of the techie.
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