Motorola Looking to Change Their Bootloader Policy and Image in the Process
Yes, you just heard right folks. According to a Twitterer by the name of @IBProud, Motorola may in fact be doing the implausible. Mr. Proud, who started a petition 5 months ago called “Unlock teh Bootloader,” was able to receive around 10,000 signatures and prompted a response from Motorola basically saying, “We’ll look into it.”
Well, not much has been heard from Motorola since then and I’m sure you’ve heard all of the negative feedback from users on the subject. Not to mention Moto just continued pumping out device after device with encrypted bootloaders which lead many to believe the petition had simply been ignored.
Bootloaders has been a hot topic these days with Sony Ericsson being one of the first OEM’s to offer their phone’s unencrypted with HTC quickly following suit after a similar public outcry type situation on their Facebook page causing their CEO to finally cave in and announce that they too, will no longer be encrypting their bootloaders.
Fast forward to today where, after a phone call with Christy Wyatt, Vice President of Mobile Software for Motorola Mobility, Irwin Proud received some shocking news about Motorola and their plans for the future of their bootloaders. According to Christy, Motorola has taken this bootloader policy very seriously and have in fact been listening to the developer community. Moto has been hard at work on preparing an update for their devices that will allow for an unlockable/relockable bootloader. They hope to push out the update sometime in Q3 or Q4 of this year.
So what’s been holding them back? Has Motorola locked up their bootloaders so tight that even they have had a hard time trying to crack them? Well not exactly. Once again, it’s those darn carriers. According to Motorola, carriers have to fully put these updates through their paces to ensure not only compatibility, but to make sure everything is up to their security standards as well. Bet you didn’t know so much was going on behind the scenes, right? All of this simply to allow a user to flash a custom ROM or develop on a device. Motorola also pointed out that the unlocking/relocking update on the Xoom was well received by carriers and they’re optimistic that each of their future devices that receive an update in the future, will be getting their bootloader unlocked in the process. Wow.
So that’s pretty much the gist of it. Straight from the guy who single-handedly got this bootloader ball rolling and straight from the horse’s mouth. I’ve always been one to skim through the comments on our site and to say to say the popular opinion on Motorola has been negative, would be an understatement. So with this breaking news, does this change your opinion on the company and can you perhaps see a Motorola device in your future? Can’t wait to read your feedback.
[Via AusDroid]