Big news today for fans of Android hacking and tinkering, as Motorola has announced that the Photon Q 4G LTE for Sprint will feature an unlockable bootloader. The company confirmed the news on its official blog, saying that it's been working with developers and carriers on a way to provide unlockable bootloaders "while keeping the networks secure and satisfying carriers’ requirements." Moto says that users will be able to unlock the Photon Q's bootloader when it launches in August (Sprint didn't provide a launch window this morning, so that's news), adding that other products will have the option of a bootloader unlock in the future. It's not clear if that's referring only to future products or if Motorola will enable the bootloaders of current devices to be unlocked as well.
Motorola has been known for including protected bootloaders on its devices for some time. The company said in June 2011 that it planned to begin implementing unlockable bootloaders on select devices, but we've yet to really see any such products come to market since. While it remains to be seen exactly how many Motorola-made devices will be released with bootloaders that can be unlocked, it's nice to see that Moto's finally planning to push out some products with the feature. Does having an unlockable bootloader make a device more attractive to you, or do you not care about it?
Via Motorola
