Over the past six months, HTC has been setting an example in the smartphone manufacturer industry. They have been actively supporting the Android development and modding community by providing bootloader unlock tools for nearly all of their devices. From the original G1 and all the way through to their latest flagship phones, more than 45 devices have been blessed with the official unlock tool. All a user has to do is visit www.HTCDev.com (link no longer active), sign up, and follow a few simple steps to unlock their devices’ bootloader and begin modding as they please.
Recently, reports have been pouring in with concerns over AT&T’s version of the HTC One X and unlocking the bootloader. Users are visiting www.HTCDev.com and attempting to use HTC’s official bootloader unlock tool and watching it fail miserably as seen below.
The Verge reached out to HTC on the matter at hand and received this startling response:
“HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we’ll continue to unlock additional devices in the future.”
AT&T is essentially blocking the unlock tool on their version of the One X. Even though HTC has been valiant in their efforts at unlocking bootloaders, it seems AT&T flexed their muscle on this one, disallowing the official unlock tool to function.
The Android community however is quite resilient when it comes to restrictions. Does unrEVOked or Revolutionary ring any bells? We’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds.
Source: The Verge