The internet is buzzing this week over the new operating system for the iPhone set to be introduced this fall: iOS 7. Perhaps the most important feature of the new operating system is one that will not help the phone's performance at all. In fact, it plans on killing it.

iOS 7's aptly named "kill switch" is being added to the functionality of all iPhones, starting with the iPhone 4. The aim of the kill switch is to prevent the theft of iPhones by disabling the phone's functionality should it become stolen. Theft of iPhones has become known as "apple picking" over the years.

"Apple picking is a huge epidemic in the United States," San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a joint statement Monday. "We are appreciative of the gesture made by Apple to address smart-phone theft."

The theft of iPhones is actually a very serious issue. With the phones routinely costing over $500 without a new 2-year subscription, and due to their relatively small size, many crooks have taken to stealing almost exclusively iPhones and other Apple products to fund their bank accounts.

"If you subtracted just the increase in Apple product thefts, we would have had an overall decrease in crime in New York," Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne explained.

By adding the kill switch, it is believed that thieves will lose all incentive to steal Apple products. The addition of the kill switch therefore seems like a no-brainer, and in fact, it seems a little odd that such an easy solution to theft would have taken so long to implement. 

As one expert notes, however, the kill switch is not necessarily in the best interest of the phone companies. By allowing their phones to be stolen without repercussion, the phone companies have actually benefited quite nicely. 

"They get a new customer, the illegitimate and legitimate customer -- that is great for them, but who suffers? Ultimately we all pay for that. The best thing is to get a darn lock on there and let us turn those things into bricks," observes John Sileo, an expert on mobile phone privacy.