From Nov 8, Microsoft’s next generation mobile OS – Windows Phone 7 based phones have started hitting the US and European markets. Several countries like India wait for the arrival of first Windows Phone 7 devices. It’s been barely a week and enthusiastic developers have found a way to break into the WP7’s file system and gain the root access. In short, possibility to jailbreak a WP7 based phone. That means developers can create apps to make them run “natively” on a WP7 and make best of the operating system. For instance, tweak or manipulate the functions of the phone like the camera and audio, which might be restricted via WP7 software development kit (SDK).
Two days back, XDA-Developer Forum member hounsell spotted a third-party App from Samsung running as a “native App” on Omnia 7. Eager developer named Chris Walsh has found a way to gain root access in a Windows Phone 7 running smartphone and also posted about how to make a third party app code (non-Silverlight) run on the Windows Phone 7 OS. Welsh did mention that the WP7 OS allowed him to use some crucial system files and run “unmanaged code”. Basically, an App on the WP7 phone that isn’t approved for Windows Marketplace.
This wasn’t the first time when enthusiasts managed to get into the WP7 OS. Back in March, Dan Ardelean discovered a work around to gain access for unlocking WP7 Series Emulator. After that, developers as well as enthusiasts were able to access the features that were demonstrated by Microsoft but no access was given for actually experience them on the emulator.
The iOS jailbreak was intended to let users choose and run the applications that were rejected by Apple. Following that iPhone unlocking became a rave to make the iPhone usable with any SIM card from any corner of the world. I foresee that similar thing is going to happen with Windows Phone 7 even though the operating system would be tightly bound and restrictive. Most times, the users tend to jailbreak just for mere customizations like setting up a wallpaper, changing App Icons and other changes.
Only if Windows Marketplace doesn’t prove to be a ‘walled garden’, users wouldn’t find a need to jailbreak.
