iPhone theft has become a huge issue in big city like New York City. In fact, Mayor Bloomberg says the iPhone was responsible for New York City’s first increase in crime in 20 years.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is supposedly pretty tired of his constituents getting their iPhones stolen from them, so he’s written a public letter to Tim Cook asking why Apple isn’t doing more to stop iPhone theft.
In his letter to Cook, Schneiderman stated the following:
“I seek to understand why companies that can develop sophisticated handheld electronics, such as the products manufactured by Apple, cannot also create technology to render stolen devices inoperable and thereby eliminate the expanding black market on which they are sold.”
Schneiderman also mailed letters to Google, Microsoft, and Samsung regarding smartphone theft. In his letter, Schneiderman reminded companies of the 2012 murder of a 26-year-old chef at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, who was killed for his iPhone. There was another incident in February where three people were stabbed in the subway while fighting over an iPhone.
At one point in his letter Schneiderman also questions whether companies like Apple and Google aren’t concerned about device theft because they benefit from sales of replacement devices.
It’s rumored that Apple is working on a fingerprint scanner that will be implemented in the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6. Using biometric security data, the fingerprint scanner could add a new layer of security to deter theives, but don’t expect Tim Cook to tell Schneiderman all of Apple’s plans in a public reply.
Source: Bloomberg
