Ars Technica seems to have inside information on this possibility and is suggesting that rather than just make the phones re-locked, Apple are planning to “brick” unlocked iPhones as a lesson to hackers with their next update. The article points to the announcement done by Steve Jobs, stating that Apple has decided to work actively against any SIM unlocks for the iPhone. The unlocks or break-ins that Jobs had referred to are :

• The first full SIM unlocks involved using a Turbo SIM card,
• iPhoneSIMfree, the first (commercial) software unlock of the iPhone
• iUnlock, a free unlock from the iPhone Dev Team

Aside from just “breaking” the SIM unlocks that have been released so far, it is expected that Apple will decide to take it a step further. When they run this month’s pending software update, it is possible that unlocked iphones will permanently and irreparably become ?bricks.? The move will deter current and potential unlockers?even if the crafty hackers manage to create a work around on the changes, the risk of suddenly owning a shiny $400 chunk of metal and plastic will always loom over their shoulders.

The rest of the article is available on Ars Technica