Jailbreaking is dead and jailbreak fans saw it coming - hackers were unable to fully unlock iOS 10 and iOS 9, and more so with the case of the former. And there are no solid indicators iOS 11 will be jailbroken and if there should be one it's best not to jailbreak at all.

That's according to Jay Freeman, better known as Saurik or the man responsible for Cydia. Freeman, Cult of Mac said, made public jailbreaking possible. His Cydia preceded that of the App Store, meaning even before Apple-approved applications made their way to iPhones jailbreak tweaks were the go-to optimal solutions for many users. But it's not the case anymore.

Saurik said jailbreaking during the early days meant stuffing the iPhone with killer features that Apple has disallowed. The solution was regarded as liberator for millions of users who were given nearly unlimited access for device customizations. That's hardly the case with the recent jailbreak releases, which if not semi-tethered were left in beta status. For the greater majority of jailbreak fans, the jailbreak tools were mostly unusable.

"It used to be that you got killer features that almost were the reason you owned the phone. And now you get a small minor modification," the report quoted Freeman as saying.

Freeman added public jailbreaking at this point is at a dead-end. "When you get fewer people bothering to jailbreak you get fewer developers targeting interesting things, which means there's less reasons for people to jailbreak." What follows is certain death and that is the current state of jailbreaking, the famed developer declared.

And fellow dev Nicholas Allegra is in agreement. Allegra, a pioneer in the jailbreaking scene, is convinced "jailbreak is basically dead." He can't imagine the movement finding its old glory days unless a new hacker with Rockstar status breaks into the scene. Cult of Mac said that would have been Yalu jailbreak creator Luca Todesco but the Italian security researcher likely saw the writings on the wall. He quit jailbreaking.

Now that seems to be the prime reason why jailbreaking is gradually fading away - the key actors or the jailbreak makers have become an endangered species. They are exiting in the same pace that they gained recognition, and for a host of valid reasons.

For one, it has become increasingly difficult to crack an iOS release, no thanks to the security enhancements rolled out by Apple. And even in the case of jailbreak opening, devs quickly realized that the door they unlocked also serves as entry point for vulnerabilities. So they end up with half-baked solutions, which as mentioned are largely inoperative.

But for some developers, public jailbreaking is no longer rewarding because they have moved on to better places - high paying jobs. Or for those who elected to continue on private security research works the reward is even better. Cult of Mac said up to $1 million bounty awaits hackers willing to sell discovered bugs and exploits.

That should explain why the motivation is too weak now for many developers to continue on public jailbreaking. And almost certainly, iPhone jailbreaking is nearing its end if not already dead.