For the less technologically adept, the thought of jailbreaking an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad might be a little intimidating. A quick glance at Craigslist will prove that there are plenty making a pretty penny off of that intimidation. Kevin Lee, a George Mason University senior, certainly didn’t think that helping a few friends and family members with jailbreaking their devices would turn into a lucrative business.
Lee says that he now earns $50,000 a year offering jailbreak and unlock services for those who own iPhones and want a little more freedom from Apple’s and AT&T’s confines. And of course, there is probably nothing inherently illegal with what he is doing since jailbreaking is now legal.
According to the Washington Post:
“To be honest, when I first started, I did it for my friends, myself, but it has snowballed from there,” said Lee, who jailbreaks iPhones to enable new screen designs, then “unlocks” them so customers can switch wireless carriers. “I was getting five to 10 customers a week, now it’s 30 to 40. I just had one customer from the Mongolian embassy who was moving to the capital of Mongolia, and he wanted to use the iPhone there.”
And now 30 to 40 of Lee’s customers can enjoy apps from the Cydia store, an app market for jailbroken iOS devices, along with custom themes and other features that help users to fully customize their iPhones and iPod touches.
One does have to wonder what the IRS will say about this since Lee is making a nice chunk of change from offering a simple service on Craigslist.
[Via: Washington Post]