California fails in measure to require "kill switches" on cell phones

Many strong-armed robberies involve cell phone theft - AKA Apple Picking.  The cell phone industry has the technology to "kill" your cell phone if it gets stolen but it will only be a matter of time before they are forced to implement it.

In 2012, 1.6 million American cell phones were stolen.

Here is the full article in the Verge


The California measure needed two more votes in order to pass.

Quote :

The vote comes just a week after nearly every major player in the phone industry pledged to make their smartphones harder to steal. Apple, Google, HTC, Huawei, Motorola, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung, along with the five major US cell carriers, agreed on plans to offer customers a way to remotely wipe or make inoperable their devices beginning July 2015. Senator Leno, who was joined by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón in pushing the legislation, said those measures were welcomed but "incremental."

Half of robberies in San Francisco last year involved smartphones, while that figure came in at 20 percent or robberies in New York, according to data from New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Nationally, the figure is one in three robberies, and $30 billion a year out of the pockets of consumers, says a now two-year-old study by the Federal Communications Commission.

My question is this:  It's an easy no-brainer with a software fix, so why is the cell-phone industry dragging their feet?  

Could it be that revenues will be down because people will not be replacing stolen phones?  

LINK: What You Should Do If Your iPhone Is Stolen

Quote :

An estimated 3.1 million handsets were stolen across the U.S. in 2013, up from 1.6 million smartphones taken from their owners the previous year.

There is a lot of information in the article.  If you have an iPhone, it is good stuff.