Motorola's Punit Soni has confirmed this in a post on Google+

Sep 8, 2014 06:59 GMT  ·  By
There will be no Developer Edition of second-generation Moto X for Verizon
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   There will be no Developer Edition of second-generation Moto X for Verizon

The second-generation Moto X smartphone went official last week with some appealing enhancements over its predecessor, and it seems that the device will not arrive at Verizon in a Developer Edition variant as well.

The info comes straight from Punit Soni, Motorola Mobility's VP of Product Management, who confirmed this on Google+, responding to a user inquiry on the matter.

In case you missed the announcement, you should know that the new Moto X model will be released on the networks of wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon, and US Cellular, as all of them have already confirmed plans to make the device available for their users.

However, it appears that those Verizon customers looking to grab the Developer Edition of the smartphone, the one that would have allowed them to easily root it, install custom ROMs, and make other changes to its software, will be disappointed.

Punit Soni didn’t provide an explanation on why Motorola decided to make such a move, nor did he say whether the decision was a final one or not.

Motorola already sells various Developer Edition phones

As Android Police notes, the original Moto X was made available for purchase at Verizon as Developer Edition, which went up for sale alongside a GSM Developer Edition variant.

Moreover, Motorola has been selling Developer Editions of different devices for a couple of years now, including the DROID RAZR M, DROID RAZR HD, and DROID MAXX.

Such phones appeal to a lot to many users mainly due to the fact that they sport an unlocked bootloader, while also featuring custom recovery. They allow for easy root, and their users can also install custom ROMs on them without much of a hassle.

Unlike the normal model, Developer Edition devices are sold without a contract, which means that users need to pay the full price in order to enjoy the aforementioned capabilities.

Moreover, these smartphones were offered without the various customization features that the standard models included.

Verizon to still get new Developer Edition Motorola phones

As mentioned above, Motorola hasn’t explained why there will be no second-generation Moto X Developer Edition handset available on Verizon’s network, and it remains to be seen whether it will offer such an explanation in the end.

One possibility is that sales of the original Moto X Developer Edition have been low enough for the mobile phone maker to determine that it’s not worth launching the second-generation Moto X in a similar flavor as well.

However, there are new Motorola handsets are expected to be released on Verizon’s network before the end of the year as part of the DROID series, and chances are that one of them will be launched as a Developer Edition too, so stay tuned for more on the matter.

There will be no Developer Edition of second-generation Moto X for Verizon
There will be no Developer Edition of second-generation Moto X for Verizon

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There will be no Developer Edition of second-generation Moto X for Verizon
There will be no Developer Edition of second-generation Moto X for Verizon
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