Motorola Australia has confirmed to techgeek.com.au that the models of the RAZR M and RAZR HD will be coming with unlockable bootloaders – a stark contrast to what the United States models, where they will have to pay for a special developer’s version of the same two models to be able to do the same.
The little tidbit in question was this from their press release: “In countries outside the U.S., the device will ship with an unlockable bootloader where operators allow.” So, that got me wondering – will that mean Telstra (being the exclusive carrier of the devices) will allow unlockable bootloaders?
In an email response to techgeek.com.au, a Motorola spokesperson replied, “We can confirm that the bootloader will be unlockable in Australia.”
But why is this feature important? Basically, it means developers can run the full native version of Ice Cream Sandwich (or any version of Android – even those from other manufacturers) without the skins and customisations that the manufacturers add on to it without bricking the phone. However, it does certainly break warranty – because you are modifying the system and potentially making it unstable.
But, if you want to get rid of, let’s say, the Samsung TouchWiz interface and run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean instead; then having an unlockable bootloader out of the box will make it easier. Though, we’re not sure if (but most likely will) break the warranty of the phone.