In an effort to increase the safety of people’s personal data, the California legislature has decreed that all smartphones, include the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, must include a kill switch by July 2015, slightly more than a year from today. A kill switch is a feature permitting the user to remotely signal their smartphone after it is stolen, and wipe it clean of data, thus protecting sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, contact lists, and other valuable personal details.
An Apple Inc. (AAPL) spokesman, Colin Johnson, responded by pointing out that Apple’s iPhones already support apps enabling remote deletion of data. In effect, the iPhone can already be set up to include a complete kill switch. However, this involves apps that presumably need to be downloaded and set up by the user. An officially mandated kill switch would be present automatically and universally in the devices.
Since the legislation is being passed at the state level, its effects will only be binding within California’s boundaries. However, this has several important consequences. In the first place, California is one of the United States’ major smartphone markets, with its high, densely urban population and affluent economy. Apple’s progressive tendencies are also likely to be resonant and welcome with many California residents.
In the second place, since California is such a large and important market for smartphones, manufacturers have an incentive to produce their devices in compliance with the kill switch law in order to cash in on this lucrative sector. If the insertion of a kill switch is cheap enough, the simplest and most cost effective way to be in compliance may be to manufacture all smartphones with this detail, regardless of destination.
Once Apple (AAPL) and other manufacturers have switched over, the barrier to establishing kill switch laws in other states may well evaporate. Smartphone makers will not be resistant to change they have already made. Everything hinges, of course, on the California legislature’s will to make the law an actuality, their ability to fully complete the legislative process, and their capacity to enforce the ruling once it has gained the force of law.
The city where smartphone theft is highest in the United States is on the opposite coast of America from California, in New York City. Apple’s (AAPL) iPhones are particularly prized by thieves in the Big Apple, and if the trend is continuing, perhaps it is time for the Cupertino firm to add additional anti-theft measures to their highly popular telephone.
