Apple is going to block some iPhones: who risks being left without a smartphone

Apple has taken a fantastic step to protect its devices from theft.

Yesterday, September 12, Apple's newest anti-theft feature went live for beta testers: Activation Lock for iPhone components. This move is likely to cause some controversy, as a certain number of users who repaired their smartphones using parts removed from broken devices may be left without a smartphone.

This is written by 9TO5Mac.

Apple has been looking for effective ways to protect the iPhone from theft for a long time. Since the gadgets cannot yet literally beat criminals, the manufacturer creates obstacles for the use of stolen smartphones.

In particular, the iPhone has Find My and Activation Lock functions. The first allows you to track a lost or stolen device, even if it is turned off, and the second does not allow you to activate the smartphone and use it without entering the Apple ID and password of the first owner, even if the settings are reset to factory settings.

The implementation of these functions of your time effectively collapsed the market of stolen iPhones, but did not solve the problem definitively. Currently, thieves alike steal Apple smartphones to disassemble and sell as parts.

Activation Lock for iPhone Parts

Back in April, Apple announced that it would solve this problem by extending Activation Lock to key iPhone components.

Apple is set to extend its popular Activation Lock feature to key iPhone components to prevent stolen iPhones from being disassembled. If the device being repaired detects that a supported part was received from another device with Activation Lock or Lost Mode enabled, the calibration capabilities for that part will be limited.

This feature is already detected in the final beta version iOS 18 and links your Apple Account not only to your iPhone, but also to components like the battery, camera and display, based on their individual serial numbers.

Of course, this won't solve the problem completely as it doesn't cover all the components and there may be some who will put up with the lack of calibration and constant messages popping up on the screen in exchange for a cheap repair.

But it will be a huge hit to the market stolen iPhones, because most people won't buy a device with obvious problems, especially if those problems indicate that it might have stolen parts.