The ‘kill-switch’ feature will be designed to render a stolen or lost handset useless with a view to halt the millions of devices being stolen each year.
Although Apple and Samsung currently offer a feature similar to a ‘kill-switch’, Google and Microsoft are keen to add the feature to their own phones to help resolve the theft issue once and for all.
Apples ‘Activation Lock’ has seemingly helped in the reduction of Apple product thefts with results showing a 17% drop in iPhone thefts in New York this year. London also saw a large 24% drop and San Francisco witnessed an even larger 38% overall drop in Apple device thefts.
Interestingly, other non-Apple device thefts rose within the same monitoring period.
The move by Microsoft and Google will mean that the three most dominant and popular operating systems will have this feature to battle mobile device theft.
Calling in the problem
Over the past few years, mobile phone theft has soared, partly because of their domestic value but more so because of the value they attract in developing countries meaning that organised crime syndicates are becoming more actively involved in the acquisition of these stolen phones.
Some facts of global mobile phone theft:
– One in three Europeans have either experienced the loss or theft of their mobile device in 2013
– In Columbia criminals stole just over one million devices in 2013
– South Koreans have seen device thefts increase by five-times the amount from 2009-2012.
How the ‘kill-switch works
For some, physically damaging the device is the only way to ensure it will never be used in the wrong hands. However, if the phone is lost or stolen the chances are it is still fully functional. Experts back up this claim stating that hackers could unlock the phone and sell on for reuse. This is possible but unlikely.
The major concern is with being able to ‘kill’ the phone once stolen. If the device is placed into ‘air-plane’ mode or is turned off the ‘kill-switch’ signal would not be able to disable the device.
Besides the debate, the ‘kill-switch’ will come in two forms.
The first form would be the ‘hard’ kill meaning the user will be able to remotely disable the stolen or lost device permanently unusable. The second option would be to make the device unusable to so called ‘unauthorised’ users.
The ‘kill-switch’ certainly has its merits and although some thieves will target the re-sell value of device parts that market is very small indeed and continually shrinking.
Remember Frenzy fans, for more up to date Fortune Frenzy news you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
