No conspiracy over iTunes account requirement

A couple of days ago I reported that the iPhone requires an active iTunes Account in order to be set up.

Carl Howe, from Blackfriars Communications, writes at Seeking Alpha that there's no conspiracy behind this, but it's actually a very nifty way for Apple to help customers quickly activate their iPhone, and receive free software updates.

Trust me — the iTunes account is going to do way less upselling than the AT&T sales people. By the way, unless I've missed something, I think this will mark the first time any US carrier has allowed online activation of their phones and phone plans. Once people get over the shock of requiring an iTunes account, this technique might actually set a new convenience standard for getting a mobile phone actually on the air.

[Apple] needs a way to deliver those [software] updates in a timely and secure way; the last thing you want is for such an update to fail and turn your iPhone into an iBrick. iTunes performs this function for iPods today, so Apple chose to rely on a proven mechanism rather than inventing a new one.

So, it may not be such a big deal after all.

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