San Francisco: Apple Inc. said on Monday (Sept 24) that programs available on the Internet that allow the iPhone to be used with other service providers besides US’ AT&T’s network can irreparably damage the device.

Apple, which also makes the iMac computer and the iPod digital music player, said once an Apple-supplied software update is installed on the iPhone, it “will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable.” “We are not doing anything proactively to disable iPhones that have been hacked or unlocked,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of worldwide product marketing.

The California-based company also said an iPhone that fails to work because of the installation of the unlocking software is not covered under the warranty. Apple plans to release the next iPhone software update later this week, the company said in a statement. “Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorised unlocking programs on their iPhones,” the company said.

There are a number of unlocking software programs on the Internet, and, at least two of them, iUnlock and Anysim, can cause the iPhone to stop working once its software is updated, Schiller said. “There may be others, but we don’t know all of them,” he added.