Here is my personal experience with jailbreaking an Apple mobile device and their warranty...
The first device I ever tried to JB was a 1st generation iPod Touch and it was nowhere near as seamless as it is now. Of course it didn't go well and I was almost ready to toss it in the dust bin because I couldn't get it un-stuck. Of course I knew I couldn't call Apple because I had just voided my warranty. But it was a toll-free number and the worst thing they could do was tell me that they couldn't (or wouldn't) help me.
So I call and this woman comes on the line and asks about the nature of my call. I explain what I did and she said, "No problem, I can help you." As you can already imagine, all I had to do was do a hard reset and restore my iPod. Of course she didn't stay on the phone the whole time, but long enough to make sure it was working.
So I asked her, "If my warranty had just been voided, why did she help me?" She said that if she had not helped me, there was a good chance I would have just thrown my iPod away and Apple would have most likely lost a customer, but by helping me restore my iPod, I would remember this experience and remain a (hopefully) loyal Apple customer who would continue to purchase content for my iPod and (hopefully) buy more Apple products in the future.
And that is pretty much why I have an iPad now.
Your happy experience was good to read about but it does not mean we all will get the same treatment. Clearly, it voids your warranty because Apple has said so. What we do know is one person's story with a friendly Apple Drone, that turned out well. That might not be the case when I FU my iDevice and I want it repaired.
According to Apple or depending upon how you understand their boilerplate, it does void your warranty. If you read the Apple iPad Warranty, they can charge you a 'diagnostic fee' if "your product has failed due to or has incompatibilities with software or data residing or recorded on your product."
Quote from Apple's public JB opinion, "“Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.â€
I'll say it: Apples position rewritten is this: "Apple's goal has always been to control every aspect of your iLife and we see jail breaking as a threat to the profits generated by iTunes and the App Store. We hate Flash and you do not need themes or file access. Remember, we own you, your devices, and we know best how you must spend your iMoney. As we have said before, the vast majority of customers are foolish and they provide the endless pit of ready cash as being vital to our self-interests, and we know that jailbreaking can severely damage our corporate user experience of earning vast amounts of iCash. By changing your iDevice, you ruined our version of Utopia and that will not be tolerated. Screw with us and change our iDevices and we will make you pay. We know people and one day, you might wake up with a horse's head in your bed."
The LOC/DMCA ruling of late gives us the legal right to JB our device but it does not prevent the manufacturer from charging us if we break our device and seek repairs. Just like modifying any consumer device and expecting to get a warranty repair for free is not fair to the manufacturer.
For the record, I think that is fair. I Greenpois0ned my iPad and I'll accept the costs of repair.
So here is an open question for the gang: suppose jailbreaking because the hot and cool thing to do, and millions of users did it. Would Apple decide to take off the gloves and go after the folks that make it possible?
Bob
