By When Motorola announced its long-awaited bootloader unlock tool we assumed most new devices would be supported. The bigger question, however, is if older devices — like the DROID 4 or the original Motorola Photon 4G — would be supported, as well. They were asked the very question on Twitter, and the news was far from good. The answer is not… not yet, anyway.
Motorola says supporting older phones “is not currently in the plan,” and while that exact wording may leave room for them to eventually come around to bringing support it’s not wise to hold your breath for too long.
The best thing you can do is hope the community can somehow find their own way around Motorola’s encryption, and unless the unlock tool gives deep insight into bootloader encryption for older devices I’d say chances are that won’t be happening any time soon.
So there’s the jig: you can buy a newer Motorola phone and hope to be able to unlock it (remember that support is subject to carrier approval), or you can pray to the development gods that they come up with a solution before too long. [Twitter via Droid-Life]
No matter what Motorola finds a way to screw you over.
they all do. You buy a device from any headset manufacturer and expect little support afterwards. I love android, I hate the developers.
I’m hoping you meant to say you hate manufacturers, or providers, not developers.
I think @camelsnot:disqus meant manufactures well, I hope, developers make the world go round
I’m going to assume, since the devices mentioned in the tweet are all on VZW, Verizon phones, past and future will not be able to take advantage of this tool.
Technically, the Xoom is a Verizon product. But it was the first Honeycomb device, which makes it an exception to the exception to the rule. So, yes.
Yeah, that was my reasoning for the Xoom being available too.
moto is moto is not vzw. It’s a moto thing.
Moto put right on the unlock page that it’s subject to carrier approval. if VZW says no, it doesn’t happen.
Not true. Companies like Samsung and HTC were able to release their phones with unlockable (or extremely easy to crack) bootloaders, Motorola is the only company that chooses to give their bootloaders higher than military grade encryption.
I know. I was referring to Motorola phones on Verizon.
Motorola has already proven that their Twitter feed is not 100% accurate, why should we start believing them now?
Why not? ALL device manufacturers give their devices about 6 months before EOL. It’s a fact. If you don’t understand that concept, go with Apple.
You completely strayed from what I stated. I am referring to Motorola’s Twitter feed that has had lots of contradicting tweets in the near past. How did you end up where you did from what i said?
This news combined with the knowledge that the Bionic can’t be rooted on the newest leaks of ICS? Remind me again why I even bought a Motorola device. Google, you own Motorola Mobility. Please fix this problem.
the Droid 4 is old??? it just got ics?
This is just planned obsolescence from Motorola, forcing us to update the hardware everytime that a new version of Android is released. I left moto a long time ago because of this and no plans to go back. Enjoying AOSP jelly bean on my easily unlocked Galaxy Note international and still keeping my warranty
Bootloader locks were originally intended as an anti-piracy mechanism, not for forced obsolescence. Motorola and the carriers didn’t want proprietary code and features ending up in the hands of the competition. Moto may not have been the fastest to adapt after the move to Android, but the carriers were practically glacial. They do not like change.
I say bringing money to Motorola handsets “not currently in the plan”.