Apple’s latest OS bucks the jailbreaking trend

The Apple (AAPL) iPhone jailbreak communities have been pretty silent since February this year when Electra iOS 11 jailbreak with Cydia was released. Those who managed to jailbreak iOS 11.3 are, unlike earlier, using it for personal purposes only. New features available in the latest version of the standard OS is cited as a reason behind the death of jailbreak.

iOS jailbreak runs a privilege escalation to remove software restrictions imposed by Apple and to replace factory-installed OS with a custom kernel.

In the initial days of iPhone, Apple had come up with a fairly simple OS that lacked many features, despite easy usability. To modify the operating system, people resorted to jailbreaking, which allows unauthorized software to be installed in the device. Despite the launch of App Store, users flooded the jailbreaking tools to get their hands on software that Apple wouldn’t allow. It was primarily obtained through Cydia, a third-party app store.

However, in recent times, with so many features already available in the standard OS, there seems little need to jailbreak. This has led to two of Cydia’s largest repositories, ModMy and ZodTTD, to shut down, leaving BigBoss as the only main source for apps that are not available in App Store.

Meanwhile, complaints have emerged that iOS 11.3.1 update is draining the battery more quickly. According to Forbes, users who upgraded their iPhones with the iOS 11.3.1 saw their phone battery drop from 58% to 7% in 3 minutes. Separately, some users reported concerns of excessive heat build-up.

It remains unclear how the jailbreaking community will thrive as Apple comes out with feature-enriched operating systems.

The market is expecting Apple to come out with a second dedicated bug fix to the iOS 11.3 or release a new version of iOS 11.4 or 12.

However, Apple is currently focusing on making better-responsive iPhones and is less inclined to address these customer support issues. Apple is rumored to be working on universal apps that work across platform and devices, but it is not clear when it is due. As of now, it remains unclear how the jailbreaking community will thrive as Apple comes out with feature-enriched operating systems.