Verizon's Samsung Galaxy S III isn't officially launching until July 10, but as we learned earlier this week, the device has already begun making its way to customers that pre-ordered it. Unfortunately, some of those folks have found in their efforts to tinker with the Verizon Galaxy S III that it appears to have a protected bootloader. With its bootloader protected, customers interested in tweaking their Galaxy S III and doing things like installing custom ROMs will have a more difficult time doing so than if the bootloader wasn't protected. The other versions of the Galaxy S III that've been released so far don't feature a locked bootloader like the Verizon model's.
There's no official word yet from Verizon on the situation with its Galaxy S III's bootloader, but it wouldn't be a huge surprise to learn that the carrier opted to protect it. Verizon isn't exactly known as a big proponent of open bootloaders, with the carrier previously saying that those types of bootloaders may prevent it from providing "the same level of customer experience and support" that some people expect because users could alter the phone's software and possibly have a negative impact on its network connectivity. Of course, the seemingly-protected bootloader on Verizon's Galaxy S III hasn't stopped users from trying to hack it anyway. And given the hype and anticipation surrounding the Galaxy S III, I wouldn't be surprised if someone eventually finds a way to get into the device. What do all of you Verizon folk make of this news? Were you planning on picking up a Galaxy S III and tinkering with it?
UPDATE: All of you would-be Verizon Galaxy S III tinkerers will be glad to hear that users over at the RootzWiki forums have already managed to get root access on the device. If you've already got a Verizon GSIII and want to root it, head on over there and get to work. Just remember that we at PhoneDog aren't responsible if anything less-than-desirable happens to your handset in the process.
