Why Apple both needs and WANTS "Jailbreakers"

So we're all aware that there is a thriving underground ecosystem for one of Apple's most popular and revered products, the iPhone. In fact, some estimates put the number of "jailbroken" or "hacked" iPhones at nearly 10%, and while not a major impact on Apple's demographics, does represents a millions of customers worldwide.

Since Apple is, and has always been fully capable of functionally eliminating this part of the user base, why don't they? My sincerest apologies to all of the innovators out there who have found unique ways to hack into the iPhone (yes, innovators, but more on that in a minute). Apple can, and does have ways to prevent tampering with their code. First and foremost, they can encrypt the entire package, which they did last year. Furthermore, they can encrypt almost everything else, except for programs in run-time which is impractical. They could lock all of this down with a universal PKI system and call it a day. So why have they [Apple] only implemented some of these features, and why weren't they a part of the platform since day 1? Many will say it has been to launch the product quickly, to keep hardware costs down, or to keep performance high. With a few exceptions these reasons are all nonsense; this is a high-performance mobile platform with more than enough horsepower to handle these basic tasks... 

The real reason is innovation, yes innovation. As much as Apple won't publicly admit it, they both want and need this sub-culture of hackers modifying their systems. More importantly, the hackers are pushing the bounds of their platform, trying new ideas and fostering a grassroots effort to make the iPhone a de facto standard in mobile computing. Any real technologist will tell you that innovation is no longer a paradigm owned by large R&D divisions of "closed door" corporate conglomerates. Innovation is now the territory of the individual, and those individuals are on an even playing field with larger players. Look at the rapid development of iPhone apps, which until recently was only profitable for the first movers and early adopters, all individuals and small businesses. In these ways you can truly consider the iphone as a platform to be influential in democratizing how people consume information and communicate. For that I applaud Apple's leniency, and hope that more platforms are released to the public that allow the individual to decide how use them. 

Need more proof? Consider that every person who wants an iPhone to hack, needs to buy that iPhone (revenue for Apple); now that's viral marketing. There have even been multiple occasions where Apple employees have been caught using jailbroken iPhones, and in fact this actually occurred in one of their own patent applications... 

If you doubt the power of this "democratization", just look at what Google has done with their Android operating system; they have fostered the exact same culture, albeit in a different way. Their market share has been growing as you've read this article...