14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility announced the launch of a new Android-based mobile phone on the airwaves of Verizon Wireless in the United States, namely the Motorola DROID 3, but it seems that the device might actually be a little less appealing than what some might have expected it to be.
Apparently, Motorola has pushed the new device on shelves with a locked bootloader inside, although it promised not too long ago that it would unlock its newer devices.
Some expected last month's Motorola Photon 4G to come with an unlocked bootloader, and also hoped that the Motorola DROID 3 would provide more freedom when it came to loading custom ROMs, but that did not happen.
Motorola has yet to make its handsets unlockable, just as it promised before, but it seems that users will have to wait a little longer before the company makes the move.
“It does not have an unlocked bootloader,” a Motorola employee notes in a forum post, answering to a question regarding the Motorola DROID 3.
For some users, this would prove to be a deal breaker, though we should note that Motorola is not the only company who released handsets with locked bootloaders.
HTC made a similar move, though the company promised that it would unlock its devices as well.
As for Motorola, the company already has on shelves an Android-based device that sports an unlocked bootloader, the Motorola XOOM tablet PC, the first to run under Android 3.0 Honeycomb.
The leading mobile phone maker will certainly unlock its latest devices at one point in the future, though it remains to be seen how fast that would happen.
Next month, the company is expected to bring to shelves its first 4G LTE-capable Android smartphone, the Motorola DROID Bionic, and chances are that it would be the device to mark the actual change in Motorola's policy regarding the bootloaders, though nothing is confirmed on the matter for the time being.