Strategy
Apple’s strategy over the past few years has shifted away from traditional computing.
New and innovative ideas have been developed, disrupting the existing business
model. In the music and video genre, several different applications and devices have
been developed including the Apple TV, iTunes, and various iPod devices. The mobile
category includes the iPhone, while the class of delivery channel items includes both
iTunes for synchronization and downloads and the App Store. Finally, the develop-
ment of the iPad (and previously the Newton device) falls within the Tablet category.
Many of these newer devices have been consolidated onto the iOS platform, with the
exception of the Macintosh workstations, which are running OS X. There has been some
debatein the pastonwhetherMac OS Xwilltransformto iOSor perhapsa platformmore
similar to iOS. The Mac OS X Lion is to be released in the summer of 2011. This
operating system is said to have similar qualities as the iOS devices, with the exception
of a touch-screen feature. A Mac App Store was released in January of 2011, which
enables Mac users to purchase software straight from their computer, similar to the
way applications can be purchased through the iTunes App Store (Apple Inc., 2010).
As of 2009, the iPhone had taken third place in smart phone sales worldwide,
which constituted 4.4% of the market share (McGlaun, 2010). During the first quarter
of 2010 alone, 8.75 million were sold, which was more than half the number for the
same period in 2009. Just prior to the release of the iPhone 4, over 50 million iPhones
had been sold, and statistics from Q4 2010 show that Apple controlled 25% of the
smart phone market in the United States (Slas hdot, 2011). With the extreme popu-
larity of the iPhone and the increasing number of devices sold, this mobile device has
become one of the main focal points of many forensic investigations.
Development community
Apart from sales, the iPhone has an active hacking community, which has yielded
research and tools that support forensic investigations. Some of these tools and tech-
niques were originally used to assist with forensic imaging and are currently used for
testing in order to better understand the devi ce. Cydia is a popular application used
for these purpos es. It allows users with a modified phone to download and run iPhone
or iPad applications that are not available in the App Store. More specifically, appli-
cations can be found here that may allow an examiner to better understand the iPhone
file system and other data contents, such as Mobile Terminal. Jailbreaking, or modi-
fying an Apple device, is not suggested, as it is not a forensically sound method; how-
ever, having the capability to remotely connect to a test device for educational
purposes can be an invaluable learning experience for an examiner.
Another technique that is commonly used on the iPhone is referred to as “unlock-
ing.” From 2007 to early 2011, AT&T was the only provider that offered service for the
iPhone in the United States. In order to function properly, an AT&T SIM (subscriber
identity module) card had to be placed into the device to identify itself on the carrier’s
network. In February 2011, the iPhone 4 became available through another carrier,
Verizon. With the device being so exclusive and only available under these two
2 CHAPTER 1 Overview
