Chevron Labs is over–a great effort ruined by people that just didn’t read very well
The Chevron Labs experiment is now over. It brought authorized app sideloading to Windows Phones. It was always intended to be a tool for developers and not a full unlock, meaning that users could run their devices like a developer unlocked device but not gain root access. Too many people failed to read the explicitly large print and cost the Chevron guys time and money and eventually led to the demise of the project. Although the costs were low, the Chevron team worked with Microsoft and have offered those with an unlock AppHub Membership for one-year. That’s normally $100 and ultimately gives you the same level of access that Chevron had promised, but for far less. Yet even with this, the comments on Chevron Labs site are already filled with anger.
Regardless, Chevron unlocked phones will re-lock the next time connected to a PC and Microsoft is delivering App Hub upgrades. The experiment is over but I still think it was a great project and a great effort. As for the future, Windows Phones will likely go the way of the iPhone with teams trying to find exploits in the OS as MS tries to patch them with updates and as the base increases, the jailbreak community will grow too. So, to be continued…
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I’d love to see the official word that the demise of the project was too many people bought it not knowing it wasn’t a full unlock.
@McHale: http://www.chevronwp7.com/post/21027437967/the-chevronwp7-labs-experiment-comes-to-an-end
“There was also some confusion about the actual purpose of the ChevronWP7 service – some folks thought we provided SIM-unlock capabilities, while others thought we were a hacker group providing full root access. On top of this, there were a larger than expected number of support emails.
As a result, both sides amicably agreed to discontinue the ChevronWP7 Labs experiment.”
Wow… that surprises me that THAT’S the reason they quit. It wasn’t a “Microsoft said NO MORE” or “We can’t keep up with the technical challenges of the latest patch…” or anything like that. It was just a matter of being bothered by customer questions. Kinda sad it had to end this way. 🙁
Thanks for the link David.
-Mc