14 DAY TRIAL // Verizon Wireless users in the United States can already purchase the Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone from their carrier, through with a caveat.
The handset comes with a locked bootloader, which makes it rather difficult for users interested in personalizing it via custom ROMs to do so.
However, it appears that good news for Verizon’s users did emerge, and that the already available model will receive an unlock tool at some point in the future.
Big Red’s support team said so when replying to a user inquiring of the smartphone’s locked status, and Samsung back that.
One member of Verizon’s support team said that “there will be a solution soon coming. Samsung will be releasing a software update to unlock your device,” Droid-life reports.
Samsung said about the same thing, though in a bit more confusing manner. However, no specific release date for the update has been provided until now.
“There will be an unlock tool that will be released for the Galaxy S III version from Verizon as of this moment,” Samsung’s support team said.
As Droid-life notes, chances are that the representatives of both companies were actually saying that the phone will be unlocked for global use, similarly with other handsets from the wireless carrier, and that they weren’t referring to the bootloader.
One other solution that Samsung and Verizon found for those users looking to customize their devices with unapproved software was to announce a Developer Edition of Galaxy S III, which should land on shelves soon.
Although no specific release date has been provided as of yet, the device is now listed on Samsung’s official website as coming soon.
A 32GB Pebble Blue model can be seen at Samsung on this page, but info on pricing is missing. Previously, however, Samsung confirmed that the device was set to be launched at $599 contract free, though the cost might actually apply to the 16GB model.