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HTC Unlocks Bootloader For All of Its Devices
An anonymous reader writes "HTCDEV announced today: 'HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. We plan on releasing the updates that will allow you to unlock your bootloader in the coming months.' However, they do note this: 'It is our responsibility to caution you that not all claims resulting or caused by or from the unlocking of the bootloader may be covered under warranty,' and this: 'We strongly suggest that you do not unlock the bootloader unless you are confident that you understand the risks involved.' This looks like a new year gift to some."
Congrats to HTC for actually knowing what their customers want and giving it to them.
Hopefully some other companies follow suit as well!
-americamatrix
All devices? It only applies to "All HTC Android devices launched after September 2011". Also, tho process means they will have a record of a certain device requesting such unlock, possibly affecting warranty.
What's a "Windows Phone"?
Like most hardware manufacturers, they are trying to get out of updating and maintaining software since it's a loss for them.
So, you're saying HTC is using this as an excuse to not update their software? Last I checked if an OEM doesn't want to update, they just don't. They don't need to throw any bones. You're reading way too much into this.
Unlocking lets the whiners who notice or care about updates go play and leave HTC alone to abandon the handsets after ~12 months post release.
So people that want to use their devices with their own software are "whiners" now? I thought they were paying enthusiastic customers who might or might not have a trusted opinion their less tech savvy friends and family might be relying on to make future smart phone purchases.
It's the real challenge Android has versus WebOs, Windows Phone, and iOS.
Normal people don't care about updates or unlocked boot loaders. Do a poll of the next 100 Android users you see and see how many of them even know what version of Android they are on and if there is a newer version than what they have. You will find that the vast majority don't know and will be more annoyed by the question than anything else because they just don't care. Updated competitor handsets is not what Android has to worry about. Android has the formula down pat. Give the customer the features they want at the price they are willing to pay. That's it. In that arena, only windows phone has a hope of competing in any time soon if they can get the price of the handsets down with some cheap SOCs. Until that happens, Android will reign supreme as it has for a while now and the dominance will only accelerate because the formula ain't changing anytime soon.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
It worries me that their unlock process calls home for an auth token.