China’s 2013 jailbreak rate plummets to 12%, legal sales to blame

While this may sound like madness, the answer is actually quite simple: fewer iPhones are being jailbroken in China because they’re now available at substantially cheaper prices thanks to a deal with China Mobile (the world’s largest carrier by subscriber numbers).

Before, many of those hungry for an iFruit were forced to import devices through shady means (grey importers). The iPhone jailbreak rate now, according to Technode, is a piddling 12.07%. A year ago, it was 34.30%. Look, we even have a graph that proves it.

Distributors in China chalk it up to new channels, including the main telecoms, China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom, as well as new Apple Retail Stores and legal re-sellers. It’s been ascertained that jailbreak rates have been further lowered thanks to official iPhone sales. iOS 7 itself has made it challenging for jailbreakers, as the latest jailbreaking software (Evasi0n7) has been described as “buggy” by most who’ve installed it. As sales continue to ramp up for the iPhones, jailbreak rates are expected to drop even further.

Sales are promising, with China Mobile having received over 1.2-million pre-orders for both iPhones, reports The Guardian.

Despite jailbreaking having negative connotations (“it’s piracy, it’ll void my warranty, my phone will explode”), there’s very little that can go wrong, based on our experience with hundreds of jailbroken iPhones. Yet it remains one of the best ways to unlock an iPhone. With a jailbreak, even older phones can receive upgrades that only the latest iPhone has. Such as this new tweak which lets devices as old as the iPhone 4 shoot in slow-mo, thanks to jailbreaking.

There’s also this tweak that lets users pair a PlayStation 3 controller with an iOS 7 device, which definitely negates the need for these overpriced, tacky gamepads (the RP One comes to mind) that cost over US$100. But jailbreaking, despite being far simpler than it used to be, still continues to decrease in popularity. We’ll have to wait and see if this trend continues across the globe.