Bummer: Verizon won’t be getting a developer edition Moto X (2nd Gen)
When Motorola revealed the Moto X last week (be sure to see our early Moto X first impressions) we learned they’d be allowing folks to buy a customized developer edition / bootloader unlocked model through Moto Maker. Pretty big deal, that, considering you couldn’t customize last year’s model. Unfortunately one group of folks are already confirmed to be left out of the developer edition train.
In a casual response to a consumer question on Google+, Motorola VP of product management Punit Soni confirmed that there would be no developer edition Moto X for Verizon Wireless consumers. Soni didn’t go into grave detail about the whos, the whats and the whys, though he did cheekily confirm that it wasn’t their decision to snub Verizon customers. He responded to one angry soul saying he loved his profile photo:
The hammer and sickle is a common symbol of communism, FYI. That makes it pretty clear who Soni is pointing the blame at, we’d say. So what does this all mean for folks on Verizon looking to buy the Moto X? For developers and rooters, it means getting custom ROMs loaded up onto this thing won’t be easy. In fact, it might not ever be possible.
Motorola bootloaders are notoriously difficult to crack and there’s no guarantee that even the most talented developers will be able to make any progress on a third-party unlocking solution. Root and ROMs based on the Motorola firmware might still be possible, but if the DROID phones from last year were anything to go by don’t expect much in the way of development.
Whether this is enough to drive you to another carrier for the new Moto X is obviously up to you to decide, but at least there won’t be any guesswork about the issue early on. Start preparing those exit strategies (we hear T-Mobile’s making it pretty easy these days). Will this be affecting your purchase decision when the device launches starting later this month?