[clay_the_ripper]

I have no personal information on this matter, this is pure speculation.

I agree that the original intent was to do as you say. But the recent actions suggest that new motives may be in play.

Clearly Eric is a very intelligent person. I find it hard to believe that he believed that reverse engineering such an elaborate workaround would work after Apple had already proven that they were willing to shut him down.

If Eric is as smart as you say, then obviously he did not expect this latest iteration to work. Which leads me to conclude there is value (for him, for his investors) in taking these actions to force Apple’s hand.

Then again, maybe he just wants to prove a point and use the exposure to promote their next app. Whether the app will succeed is unknown but the PR strategy so far is crushing it.

[jnovek]

Early stage is sort of a long string of Hail Marys. Critical problems that create new critical problems not far down the road.

I’m guessing that Eric knew that he had days before Apple patched whatever exploit he found. I’m guessing he was hoping to find another move he could make before that happened.

Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. Big risk for big reward — imagine what a big deal it would’ve been if Beeper Mini actually found a sustainable way to make iMessage work outside of Apple?

[voakbasda]

I would not be surprised if it comes out that he has some backing from other companies that want to disrupt Apples monopoly on their service endpoints.

Collectively, there are many businesses that just need some precedent to give them ammunition to open up the App Store, iCloud, and more. It would not cost them much to back this kind of effort.