Steve Litchfield raises a simple point. Why do software authors insist on IMEI registration, as he makes a plea for simpler software registration.
Make it Easier for the End Users
Its funny you should write this article today.
This afternoon I decided not to purchase the excellent picoblogger from
because of this exact reason. My 6600 is soon to be replaced with a 6630 and i did not want the hassle of getting another liscence key.
Do any of the various C++ and Java APIs for the Symbian OS make the user's phone number available? If so, wouldn't that avoid the phone upgrade issue? Obviously, you'd have to give out your phone number in some form, but the use of a one-way hash would protect your privacy to some degree.
pelwell wrote:Do any of the various C++ and Java APIs for the Symbian OS make the user's phone number available? If so, wouldn't that avoid the phone upgrade issue? Obviously, you'd have to give out your phone number in some form, but the use of a one-way hash would protect your privacy to some degree.No, because there is no necessity for neither the phone nor the SIM card to have/store the user's phone number anywhere & they usually don't.
That is, the phone never sends the number out itself (because it doesn't have/know it in the first place and thus no software on the phone can find/show it).
It is the network that maps the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card's serial number (IMSI, International Mobile Subscriber Identity) to the phone number on servers (the so called Home Location Registry, HLR, and Visitor Location Registry, VLR, servers in the phone network keep track of who and where the phone use is) at the network side, and sends it to whomever you call - if not blocked by your phone or the network side - or send an SMS/MMS message to.