Hackers pledge to unlock iPhone from O2 within hours of launch

Hackers are vowing to unlock the iPhone from the O2 mobile network, just days before it goes on sale in Britain. The ÂŁ269 touchscreen mobile phone, dubbed “revolutionary” by its maker, Apple, is already one of the most eagerly awaited of gadgets and stores are expecting a shopper frenzy as it goes on sale in the UK this week. Combining the music and video capability of the iPod, with a touch-sensitive screen and wireless internet access, the iPhone was dubbed “invention of the year” by Time magazine last week.

The phone has prompted shopper queues in the US this year; British consumers can follow suit this Friday, at precisely 6.02pm, in a clock-watching stunt aimed at promoting Apple’s exclusive deal with the British mobile phone network O2.

But a cloud looms on the horizon for the two companies, as hackers said yesterday they would make the phone usable by customers of any of Britain’s other mobile networks.

Apple has been caught in an arms race with hackers since the US launch in June, with programmers trying various ways to unlock the iPhone and break the exclusivity deals with mobile firms, twice succeeding in outsmarting Apple. Software in the UK iPhone locks the handsets into the O2 network but hackers say they will provide a “jailbreak” programme, perhaps within hours of the UK launch.

Apple’s vice president, Greg Joswiak, said the firm would resist any unlocking of its handsets, confirming comments of the chief executive, Steve Jobs, who said at the launch: “It’s a cat and mouse game. People will break in, it’s our job to stop them.”

Despite scepticism from rival firms, who claimed the iPhone was too costly and short on crucial capabilities for European consumers, those involved in the launch are optimistic. Matthew Key, O2′s chief executive, thinks 200,000 iPhones will have been sold in the UK by the new year.

However, in the US about 250,000 iPhone owners have yet to sign up with the “exclusive” American carrier, AT&T. As this firm pays at least ÂŁ9 of each monthly iPhone subscription back to Apple, the hackers may have lost it as much as ÂŁ27m in potential revenue in a year. A similar pattern in the UK could see Mr Jobs lose perhaps ÂŁ6m just from those buying an iPhone over Christmas. Apple could simultaneously face competition from Google which will announce details of its own gPhone today.