Motorola commits to Ice Cream Sandwich and unlocked bootladers ~ GoAndroid

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Motorola commits to Ice Cream Sandwich and unlocked bootladers

11:09 AM

Simranpal SIngh

Motorola got no end of grief when it made the decision to lock the bootloader on its latest flagship device, the DROID RAZR. Though we later learned that international versions of the phone would be user-unlockable, their current and past reliance on custom software and locked bootloaders has been a sore spot with the Android mod community for years. Moto has decided to come clean with a forward-facing new start, instructing curious users to two separate sites for unlocking and upgrading.

For Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades to current devices (like the DROID BIONIC and XOOM) as well as future software upgrades, head over to the Motorola Android Software Upgrade News page on the official Motorola forum. For news and instructions on bootloader unlocking, check out MOTODEV, a long-standing arm of Motorola’s software department. These two locations will have updates and instructions for all the devices that apply, presumably all the Android devices the company makes for U.S. carriers.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Motorola is serving the carriers first and foremost, and in Verizon’s case that means that they won’t be providing unlocked bootloaders any time in the near future. Prospective DROID RAZR owners can take heart in the fact that an unlock for the international RAZR will probably be reversed-engineered for US owners. In the meantime, the two sites are a good place to start in your modding endeavors – not to mention in making Motorola aware of your frustration.