The concept of jailbreaking dates back to July 2007, when it was applied to the iPhone within a month of the device’s first release. This first occurrence related to the adding of custom ringtones, but the idea quickly developed as a means to augment the phone with games and other applications not licensed by Apple Inc. Notable in the history of jailbreaking are a group of engineers popularly known as the iPhone Dev Team, who have developed a number of tools to enable use of unauthorized applications on a range of devices by Apple and other manufacturers.

The concept of jailbreaking dates back to July 2007, when it was applied to the iPhone within a month of the device’s first release. This first occurrence related to the adding of custom ringtones, but the idea quickly developed as a means to augment the phone with games and other applications not licensed by Apple Inc. Notable in the history of jailbreaking are a group of engineers popularly known as the iPhone Dev Team, who have developed a number of tools to enable use of unauthorized applications on a range of devices by Apple and other manufacturers.