@ Guru – It is not in Apple’s hands – the hackers are going around Apple.

@ eas – you are probably right (sadly). However, they have just hacked it so that you can use a pre-paid card. And none of the other functions are affected. So there is hope. But you’re right it might become a cat and mouse game.

@ Bruce – fair concern. Their hack for prepaid cards lets most things work – but YouTube does not…

@ Vertiboy – Haha – yes, sea kayaking is preferable to showering. For everyone else – private joke based on Veriboy’s blog.

@ Indira – yes, thanks.

@ TGFI – aargh… dang it. If I had posted more frequently would I have been spared from this tag??

I suspect that Apple will be releasing updates to the iPhone on a regular basis for the next year with the following dynamic:
1. The updates will deliver compelling new functionality, so people will really want to install them.
2. The updates will not work on a hacked iPhone system, so people will have to do a clean reinstall.
3. The clean reinstall will block the attack vectors previously used to unlock the system.
4. The hacking teams will have to find new ways in, but by the time they figure it out, a new update will be coming in for a landing.

Finally, interest will wane, on both the side of the hackers, and the consumers of their hacks. The dynamic has already played out to a large degree with iTunes cracking (though some people have been carrying the torch forward). It also seems to have happened among people making it possible to run OSX on generic PC hardware.