It’s no secret that Steve Jobs sets demanding deadlines. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why Apple is so great; he demands excellency and he want it fast. What many of you probably didn’t know is that this habit of his may be one of the reasons why the unlocked iPhone’s were relocked after Apple’s latest update.

Such is the conclusion made by Leander Kahney, legendary Mac fan and author of The Cult of Mac and The Cult of iPod. Aside from being an author, Leander is also a news editor at Wired and he published an awesome article a few days ago that explains why Apple’s latest iPhone update did what it did.

The last thing Apple wanted to do was to upset their users. They had no real reason to lock your phone, other than to satisfy AT&T. And I strongly believe that Apple regards us users higher than any of their partners. But at the same time, the people at Apple are very fond of their software and they don’t support cracking. Leander explains, “Apple’s vice president of hardware product marketing told PC Magazine that Apple wasn’t hostile to hackers, but wouldn’t support them either.”

The reason why updated iPhones can no longer be unlocked, Leander says, is that the phones software was far from complete before the update. Steve Jobs legendary demands led the release of software that was fully functional, but not perfect. It worked great, but blogger Erica Sadun says that in some places, it was “a complete hack.”

It’s amazing that something that was not yet complete still turned out so great. In the world of Apple, there are no impossible deadlines and if Steve Jobs says June, then June it is. Even if they had to release somewhat of a prototype, it was a revolutionary prototype. The hardware was put together to perfection and the software was upgradeable. No problem. And most importantly; they were the first to market.

Leander also mentions third-party software in his article, and speculates about whether or not Apple will allow it on the iPhone. And I completely agree with him when he says that Apple will probably start out by choosing a few professional developers to try it out before they open it up to the world. Just like he writes, it will happen in a “slow and deliberate way”. Why?

First of all, the phone needs more updates before the software is entirely complete. The latest update brought us a version that is very much rewritten, and this new version probably needs some fine-tuning or perhaps even major changes. I’m very confident we’re going to see third-party applications but not until Apple considers the software complete. There are more features and applications to be added before then.

Second, Apple will want to try out their programming interface with a few developers so that they can make necessary changes and improvements before opening it up to the public. It’s going to be harder to make changes in the interface when there are thousands of people using it, than just a few selected companies. Here’s an appropriate quote from our Steve Jobs quotes collection, and I guess it goes for programming interfaces as well as products:

“We can’t ship junk. There are thresholds we can’t cross because of who we are. The difference is, we don’t offer stripped-down, lousy products.”

So all this, relocking of iPhones, blocking of third-party applications, is to uphold the Apple tradition of providing a solid user experience. What they are doing is, they are making sure that your experience will be as hassle free as possible. No matter how you feel about the recent update, they’re doing this for your own good. The article quotes what Steve Jobs said in January:

“The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore.”

And remember what Leander writes in his article, “Apple worked hard not to brick iPhones — even hacked ones.”