We recently reported on Windows Phone 7 jailbreak/unlock tool – ChevronWP7 Unlocker, since it’s release the developers gained a lot of recognition and were contacted by Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone 7, to discuss the ChevronWP7 unlocking tool.
As a result of the discussion, both parties established a mutual understanding of the intent to enable homebrew opportunities and to open the Windows Phone 7 platform for broader access to developers and users.
This decision to pull back may be the result of a heated argument over application piracy that erupted when the ChevronWP7 tool was released early last week. Critics of the tool incited a heated argument by claiming the unlocker could be used to facilitate application piracy. Though the developers behind ChevronWP7 refuted this claim, the PR damage was already done.
To keep the momentum going for themselves the development team has released WP7 custom ringtone manager that shows off exciting platform potential. The source code has also been made available to guide homebrew developers.
The tone of the blog post announcing the demise of the unlocking tool was hopeful. The team at ChevronWP7 seem optimistic that Microsoft will work with them to open up Windows Phone to developers and users alike. They also hint that they and the community at large may be able to shape the platform and make it more friendly to homebrew endeavors. The first step in this process is removing their tool from the public domain and coming to Microsoft with a clean slate.
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