Wed, 04 Nov 2009 3:24p.m.
I've had this asked of me many times before, so rather than explain it yet again I'll blog it and try and explain it a little better.

Apple create these amazingly cool gadgets called an iPhone and an iPod Touch. They are great to use, they are easy to use and have tons of great applications.

They come with standard software which, for most people is fine. Then there are those of us who want more themes, more ringtones, more applications, and to use other telco providers.

On of the reasons Apple are very stringent about the control on their product is fairly straight forward - they have agreements with various telcos, they want their users to only use the best, so no new, untried networks or anything that reflects badly on Apple products.

In New Zealand you can technically only use an Apple iPhone on Vodafone. This means Vodafone get a big boost in customers wanting an iPhone. It’s a win-win situation for both parties; not however for the customer who may want to use the new Telecom XT network, or something else.

Another reason is that they don't want you installing any old application onto your device - what if you managed to get a virus that wiped your data? It protects people who are not IT savvy enough to stop this from happening.

Not to mention the application store makes them a fair bit more money because all applications flow through them - again, a smart move from a company perspective.

However in saying this they get to deny any applications which they deem competitive with their own, eg. IP phone software that means you don't need the telco they have signed with, other browsers etc.

Now you understand the background, you can understand there are those whom want more than the five txt alert tones and until recently, ringtones.

Also those cool applications that were free but didn't make it through Apples vetting to get into the Apple iTunes Store. Not to mention people who want to look different, have wallpaper, backgrounding of applications, and general hacking.

Of course there are those who also want to use the Telecom XT network as well. All these things are available under jailbreaking. For the most users, it’s possibly the themes they want, and maybe being able to use another network provider, however there are others who want some of the other applications available, to be able to SSH into their device, or mount it over the network in a file share.

Personally I have my iPhone jailbroken - I do this because I’m a bit of a hacker (as in changing configs, SSH, etc) and like seeing/changing what’s under the hood.

I also like the file browser, Terminal, and a couple of other applications like xGPS (much like TomTom only free).

I found the themes too slow down the responsiveness of the device, and most have icons that all look the same which can be confusing in a hurry finding the correct application. I use the backgrounder occasionally which lets me run multiple applications at the same time, but again this does slow the device down a bit.

For the average user, I wouldn't bother trying to jailbreak. If you do try and for some reason it fails, just click the restore on iTunes and it can revert to a previous backup.