Despite Best of Intentions, Motorola Photon 4G Bootloader Will Be Locked
Yes, Motorola has promised that future handsets releases will feature unlockable bootloaders out of the box, but our hopes that the newly announced Photon 4G will be counted among them have been crushed. Moto has issued a statement that reaffirms their intentions to deploy software more open to development on Android smartphones later this year (carrier willing), but it’s a no-go for the Photon.
This comes as the latest in a string of attempts to create better relations between the underground Android development scene and mainstream manufacturing partners. Most of the major handset makers have committed to making things a bit easier by providing easily unlocked bootloaders and other features, but few have actually delivered. Samsung’s recent gesture of sending a Galaxy S II to one of CyangonMod’s developers is one of the few instances where a manufacturer has gone above and beyond to make good with custom software devs.
Perhaps there is still hope that an unlockable bootloader could come as part of a future software update, but let’s not get carried away.
[via Android and Me]