It is not often that an unlocking tool is supported by the company that makes the operating system. Chevron Labs was given this honour when it released its ChevronWP7 utility back in November. For US$9, developers could “developer unlock” their Windows Phone 7 devices without incurring Microsoft’s ire. But it’s not quite as simple: ChevronWP7 got the unlocking tokens from Microsoft and it has now sold out of the 10,000 it had.
The ChevronWP7 team is currently deciding whether it would like to resume sales after securing more tokens from Microsoft or stop offering the service. It’s not the tool itself that is the issue but the overhead support the team has to put in to offer it. For example, there are device-specific support issues as well and more general ones such as PayPal customer disputes. According to Chevron Labs’ Rafael Rivera:
“We started off small to make sure everything was working properly. Then we met certain milestones that opened up the availability of more tokens over time. So we have actually sold-out of tokens before. This isn’t new.”
No final decision has been taken yet so you may still be able to unlock your device using ChevronWP7 in the near future.
Read more: WinSuperSite
My bad luck, i bought my phone just a week after Chevron tokens got sold out. Eagerly waiting for sales to resume, i check the site twice daily. Hope they’ll put up an update on their site about their future plans.