iPhone theft by 40% in San Francisco, 25% in New York by blocking activation

Introducing Lock activation was accredited by the FCC in December as the main factor behind the decline in theft related to the iPhone, and new data suggest that the trend has continued since. The latest figures show a decline of 40 percent in the number of iPhones stolen in San Francisco and 25 percent in New York, between September 2013 and September 2014.

The number of iPhones stolen in London halved during the same period, with Mayor Boris Johnson stating:

We have made real progress in the fight against the epidemic of theft of smartphones that was affecting many major cities just two years ago.

Trigger lock made his debut with iOS 7 with the feature that allows users to remotely lock iPhone with iCloud credential that requires authentication with Apple for the device to be accessed again.

California passed a law in August 2014 that requires all smartphones sold in the state to include a kill switch in July 2015. The feature is standard on the latest version of Android, and Microsoft also said it is working a kill switch that will be included as standard on Windows Phones to be launched later this year.