Although the iPhone iOS changes have not all be groundbreaking, one features may be theft and black-market resale-breaking. This feature so far has not been matched by Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy line or HTC One. Law enforcement is encouraging smartphone makers to develop a permanent to solution to smartphone-poaching.
One in three robberies nationwide involve the theft of a mobile phone according to the FCC. 175 million cell phones have been sold in the U.S. in the past year. Apple products are so often stolen, police call it Apple picking. There are instances of people being killed during iPhone thefts or greatly harmed for an iPad.
Apple added a feature to iOS 7 called Activation Lock. If an iPhone is stolen both the password and Apple ID are needed to reactive the phone. The feature is designed to make it harder for the iPhone thief to reactivate and resell the stolen iPhone or Apple device.
On Thursday, San Francisco District Attorney, George Gascon and New York D.A. Eric Schneiderman, will be meeting in New York with reps from Motorola, Samsung, Microsoft and Apple to discuss ways to correct the rampant theft of smartphones.
The two D.A.'s issued a statement in which that said that they will reserve judgment on the Activation Lock feature. They urge the industry to "imbed persistent technology that is free to consumers that will make a phone inoperable once stolen, even if the device is off, the SIM card is removed, or the phone is modified by a thief to avoid detection."
The Activation Lock builds on the Find My Phone feature that only works when the iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular data network. The Activation Lock may make it harder to use the iPhone, but it doesn't make it impossible to dismantle it and sell it for parts.
If there are any iPhone thieves out there, will this stop you from Apple picking?
Some smartphone theft prevention tips from CTIA.