So you may recall from a few months ago we brought you an article about the little Aussie taking on Motorola US. Well it seems today that Irwin Proud has gotten some face (phone) time with Christy Wyatt, Vice President of Mobile Software for Motorola Mobility. Irwin spent a just under an hour chatting with Christy and was able to get a better understanding of Motorola’s predicament and their perseverance to work closely with Carriers to get devices unlocked and Dev friendly.
Motorola is firmly committed to delivering an unlockable/relockable bootloader solution. This will be applicable to all devices that are scheduled to receive updates in the second half of this year, indicating the possibility that existing, locked devices may receive updates to unlock them in Q3 or Q4 2011.
To give you some assurance how this will be achieved, Motorola will be building all versions of their Moto flavoured Android from the same unlocked source code. However, Motorola did confirm that these updates are still subject to carrier approval, which could cause some issues.
The biggest reason for the delay in getting this solution out at the moment is the stringent testing that is executed by the carriers. This sounds like a stalling tactic, but Motorola did indicate that the unlocking and re-locking that was provided for the Xoom was well received (by carriers) and this would be the same method used for the upcoming updates to other devices. Motorola is working closely with their partnered carriers to help facilitate and encourage that each device that will receive an update will also get an unlocked bootloader.
Motorola seems to have a sincere desire to get their devices unlocked – this was demonstrated when Chrsty joked that they wouldn’t be in this predicament if it wasn’t for how good they are at security.
Motorola were passionate about showing their commitment to a bootloader solution, that they were happy for Irwin to share his encounter with the community that rallied so enthusiastically behind the cause.
Irwin is confident that Motorola will honour this arrangement. “Christy appeared very genuine about their plan of attack and seemed almost exasperated with how hard they’ve worked to get to this point,” said Irwin when interviewed by Ausdroid.
So there you have it folks, it seems there is still hope for the large American manufacturer and from what Irwin has heard it does look like we can expect to see future and current Motorola devices getting the freedom that the community fought so hard to see.
sounds like bs to me and since its jan 2nd and nothing here we are more bs im done with motorola loved my og droid but this locked bootloader on the x2 is crap
Great news. Next on the chopping block for Motorola is their MotoBlur. Let’s get that ball rolling 😉
More hot air, she didn’t say anything we haven’t heard before she’s just spewing the same old bs with the same old carrier stipulations. typicall Motorola, they don’t have the balls to make a definative statement just more vague bs. It’s too late for Motorola anyway most customers and all the developers have moved on. They’re losing 1 percent market share every quarter and their stock is taking a beating. Motorola’s a sinking ship and they suck.
SS or it didnt happen
It looks like Motorola Milestone will probably remain with locked bootloader.
Requiring mobile devices to be locked makes no sense, especially when you can use wireless data networks with a PC you have admin/root access to anyway.
makes perfect sense from a vendors standpoint.
so it takes MOTO 6 months more to do what HTC and SAMSUNG have done already? thats just bull.. i will not buy their devices until they are unlocked.
I will NOT buy any motorola device anymore, unless I see my milestone with unlocked bootloader. I didn’t know that milestone have locked bootloader unless I bought it.
Me too.
And the reason I want an unlocked bootloader is that I need to modify the firmware to debug & fix the 10 hour standby time issue for my moto flipout, which is claimed by moto to have 360 hour standby time.
No more moto for me.
i’ll see it when i believe it, blaming the telco’s is pretty stupid though.
I be they have seen the difference between the droid1 sales (only unlocked moto phone) and all their others. of course there is a lot more android competition out these days.
I would never get a moto phone for my self because you are at their whim for updates.
I think you mean “I’ll believe this when I see it” Because I sure hope if you see it you believe it.
Lack of Faith is a bitch, tho.
lol dont know how i got those two mixed up like that!
i dont believe a word of it though. I will never get a moto phone and not be able to update it, shame because the atrix looks quite nice.
i did get a droid pro for my mother though. its a damn sweet phone and verizon/moto at least send updates out to the phones reasonably quickly. im sure 2.3 will be the last though.
If carriers are the issue, then why not just issue it for phones that are GSM unlocked?
I have a moto phone that is GSM unlocked, so why am I beholden to the carriers then Moto. Simple if you know that the public is pissed about your policy just blame the carrier instead, and claim you can’t do anything until they give the go ahead. This has been done for decades in the mobile phone market and will continue to be the case for decades ahead.
Would unlocked phones be able to get the update when (or, more skeptically, ‘if’) it comes out?
I hope its true, more of a pipe dream
Well at least Christy Wyatt seems to be talking the talk, let’s see the follow through. As I will not purchase another Moto device until it is unlocked..Samsung and HTC are way ahead of the game in this regard..
Great news, and nice work by Irwin representing the community all the way up to the VP of Mobile Software. They are promising action, I just hope for Motorola’s sake it is not too little too late. They are already suffering from bad press with their two new handsets which both seem to have locked bootloaders (Triumph & Photon).
With Samsung and HTC taking real actions to get the developer and enthusiast community on-side, let’s hope Motorola do the same
Great Job, Irwin. Thanks for your time with this. I hope Motorola isn’t wasting your time.
Now if they’d give us the Atrix’s key we’d be all set 😛
I hope so
Excellent news!