Motorola Droid 3 comes with a locked bootloader

Even though Motorola promised that phones launched in “late 2011″ would ship with unlocked bootloaders, most watchers hoped that the company’s spate of summer releases would also come with bootloaders that were either unlocked from the start or could be unlocked easily. Sadly, the new Droid 3 ships with a locked bootloader, and modders aren’t happy about it.
However, they do allude to the possibility of future software updates opening up the bootloader to modders who want to tweak or customize their devices. That wasn’t good enough for some Android fans, who insisted on knowing when the relockable bootloader would be standard on Motorola devices.
The reason this is important is because a locked bootloader makes the process of rooting your Android phone significantly more difficult. Not that it’s particularly hard now, but locking the bootloader can make it significantly more difficult to install and get the full benefit of some ROMs.
The only problem with Motorola’s statement is the “where channel and operator partners will allow it” section. This implies that Motorola could very well say that handsets directly from them would be unlocked if the carriers didn’t insist that they stay locked.

Posted in: Motorola