Suited and booted
Listening to overwhelming customer support in favour of the decision, HTC CEO Peter Chou has announced that the company's future mobile phones will come with unlocked bootloaders, enabling users to load custom ROMs unencumbered, should they so desire.
The announcement, made on HTC's Facebook page, declared that: "There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we've listened. Today, I'm confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience."
The decision comes in the wake of complains raised by owners, and would-be owners, of the HTC Evo 3D, Incredible S, Evo 3D, Sensation and Thunderbolt - all of which had locked bootloaders. The restricted boodloader on these devices makes loading custom ROMs impossible, leaving users stuck using the Andoid installation provided with the devices.
One of the great appeals of Android is its ability to be tweaked by end users of handsets, with tweaks ranging from the simple removal carrier and manufacturer customisations (such as HTC's Sense interface) to the addition of numerous new features, such as those offered by the popular CyanogenMod. HTC's decision to allow owners of its handsets to embrace that openness could well prove a key selling point over devices from other manufacturers which come with locked bootloaders.
It's unclear if HTC will be unlocking the bootloaders of devices already purchased, or if the new policy will only apply to new devices. There are certainly enough HTC customers in position of a locked handset hoping for a way to load customised Android installation in their HTC devices for it to be worth HTC's while to make the unlocking retroactive.
