A group of skilled developers began their mission in 2011 to provide a way around Microsoft’s steep $99 unlock fee for the WP7 devices. It became wildly popular and caught the attention of Microsoft themselves. The, now named, Chevron WP7 Labs worked out an arrangement with Microsoft to provide a cheaper alternative to developers to unlock and sideload applications for testing and homebrew purposes. The intent was to offer the service to those who could not afford the high fee imposed by Microsoft or allow developers from other operating systems to test the waters without investing too much.
ChevronWP7 Labs enters the New Year with 10,000 token sales under our belt. Hooah! ^RR
Our agreement with Microsoft was to sell no more than 10,000 tokens, hence “sold out”. We’re discussing if we want to up that number. ^RR
As of early this morning, it looks as though the Chevron WP7 Labs unlocking service is completely sold out. They made an announcement on Twitter this morning saying that they had reached the max amount of unlock tokens from Microsoft that they had originally agreed upon. It is unclear at this time whether or not the group will receive more tokens to continue this service. Considering the popularity and success of this first round, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
