ChevronWP7 Unlock Tool for Windows Phone 7 Removed By Microsoft

ChevronWP7 was the first ever jailbreak/unlock tool for Windows Phone 7 devices which allows you to side-load apps without having the $99cost of a developer account. It was created by a team of developers, Rafael Rivera, Long Zheng and Chris Walsh.

Today, the developers announced that they have decided to discontinue the ChevronWP7 tool and stopped distributing it.

Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone 7, contacted the ChevronWP7 team to establish a mutual understanding focusing on the team’s efforts to enable homebrew possibilities and broaden the development of Windows Phone 7 apps and tools.

Here are the latest updates directly from the official ChevronWP 7 blog.

Through this discussion, we established a mutual understanding of our intent to enable homebrew opportunities and to open the Windows Phone 7 platform for broader access to developers and users.

To pursue these goals with Microsoft’s support, Brandon Watson has agreed to engage in further discussions with us about officially facilitating homebrew development on WP7. To fast-track discussions, we are discontinuing the unlocking tool effective immediately.

We are excited to explore the opportunity to become more involved with the shaping of the platform and to build a feedback channel for developers around the world.

To reiterate our enthusiasm to enable new opportunities, we have made available a WP7 custom ringtone manager that shows off exciting platform potential. The source code has also been made available to guide homebrew developers.