With the introduction of the Kill Switch, the US and UK have seen a drastic reduction of smart phone thefts.



London saw a drop in smartphone thefts by 50 percent, San Francisco by 40 percent, and New York by 25 percent, said authorities on Tuesday.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "We have made real progress in tackling the smartphone theft epidemic that was affecting many major cities just two years ago."

London was seeing the theft of 10,000 smartphones per month.

Apple was the first to react, adding a "lock phone" feature to its Find my iPhone app in 2013, followed by Microsoft and Google, who had announced, in July 2014, a similar feature.