The "Kill Switch" in smartphones is turning out to be troublesome for the robbers as the number of thefts have come down drastically in cities like New York, London and San Francisco, according to fresh data. The theft of handsets dropped by nearly 23 percent in San Francisco in the year 2013 according to the PCWorld reports. The theft of iPhone is down by 40 per cent.

The kill switch is a software lock that can be remotely activated when a phone is stolen or misplaced. This feature wipes all the personal data from a phone and “brick it” so it can’t be reused or reprogrammed. The leading smartphone maker, Apple has added this kill switch, called 'Activation Lock,' to its flagship handset, iPhone in September 2013. Samsung made this available for Galaxy S5 since April 201 and now Google made it a standard feature for Android with Lollipop OS.

In New York the robbery smartphones is down by 16 percent and iPhone by 25 percent. London reported a drop of 40 percent in the smartphone robbery. If all the smartphone makers come up with this “Kill Switch” probably in next few years, there could be zero robbery of handsets.

- TVR