It always raises a wry smile when well-intentioned customer relations moves result in a user backlash, which is why we smiled with more than a hint of wryness when Motorola’s “Let’s engage our users!” Facebook activity saw fans of the manufacturer voting with their feet and demanding an end to locked bootloaders – a software measure employed by Motorola (among others) to prevent users rooting their Android devices (similar to jailbreaking an iPhone) to get extra functionality.
Motorola asked their Facebook fans “What cool Android apps would you like to see next from developers?“, and currently the top seven answers all involve the implementation of unlockable bootloaders – encompassing some 22,000 votes between them. Amusingly, the first non-bootloader related options is user asking to be able to get rid of the MotoBlur Android skin.
This is all good for a chuckle, but it would seem in a moment of shocking humanity Motorola are actually going to listen to their Facebook fans. AusDroid picked up the story of a lone Australian Atrix user who, after constant pestering, managed to extract the following blood from the Motorola stone –
“We completely understand the operator requirement for security to the end user, and as well, want to support the developer communities desire to use these products as a development platform.  It is our intention to enable the unlockable/relockable bootloader currently found on Motorola XOOM across our portfolio of devices starting in late 2011, where carriers and operators will allow it.”
This has since been confirmed with Motorola, so it would seem in this instance the voice of the consumer has truly been heard. Whether anything will eventually come of this is unclear – we can’t imagine many carriers are going to be thrilled that Motorola want to give users the ability to hack around with their handsets, but still, baby steps.
