Will Motorola’s New Devices Be Locked Down??

January 19th, 2011

B_ren

UPDATE***** Right after everyone starting to report the comment made on the Motorola Youtube video there was a quick retraction on Motorola’s part, so take a look and let us know what you think of their response…

We apologize for the feedback we provided regarding our bootloader policy. The response does not reflect the views of Motorola.

We are working closely with our partners to offer a bootloader solution that will enable developers to use our devices as a development platform while still protecting our users’ interests. More detailed information will follow as we get closer to availability.

There also was this response to a followup on the YouTube page:

So we attempt to answer nearly all comments raised on this channel across over 130 videos and in a timely fashion. Sometimes we make a mistake, and the remark we agree could have been better phrased and more polite. So we do apologise, and that we will continue to monitor feedback on the wider discussion and pass that along. Thank you.

Since we saw the Droid Bionic and the Atrix 4G at CES many people have been wondering if the devices will be locked down as we are used to with Motorola devices. If you are look at the history of their devices the answer would be without doubt “YES”. However with the growth of Android ben part and parcel based on the fact that we have the ability to hack and mod our devices, one would think that Motorola would get with the times and comply a little more with the demands of the community. This debate is especially a touchy subject for those of us that buy phones outright, and as far as I am concerned should be able to do what we want with them. Well someone decided to pose the question once again ono Motorola’s Youtube video showcasing the Atrix Smart Docks and they received a nice little response from a Motorola employee….

@tdcrooks if you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we’ll continue with our strategy that is working thanks.

Now I am perfectly ok with Motorola employees sharing or em parting information, but for someone to tell consumers to ‘go elsewhere” seems to be against the reason for being in business. Not only that, but also the fact that they seem to think their strategy is working?!?!?! Personally everyone I know that has a Motorola Droid of any sort has the device rooted and the bootloader unlocked, so really @tdcrooks you think the strategy is working??? I beg to differ on that point. Regardless of what myself or anyone else thinks the fact of the matter is that if someone wants to hack one of these it shall be done eventually. I am not saying that Motorola should make their devices the easiest in the world to hack, but make it a little easier for those of us that want to take the risk and load custom roms, mod and hack.

Please let us know what you think of all this by dropping a comment or please head over to the Forums and share your opinions.

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