If you take a look around you at the type of mobile devices the people around you are carrying at any given time, at least half of them are probably Android powered devices. Let’s face it, Android is pretty popular. And one of the things that make them so popular is the fact that you can root or modify your device. For those who don’t know, rooting your Android device is basically giving you superuser access to it(think: computer administrator). It gives you access to system files and the ability to change things that are normally unable to be changed(or read only). You can then install custom versions of Android that were created or roms, therefore making your device do things it couldn’t do before or were locked by the carrier.
There are whole sites, such as the popular XDA Developers site, that are dedicated to rooting and creating roms for Android devices. Now with rooting being so popular, you can imagine how upset some(read:alot) of HTC’s fans were when they started locking the bootloaders on their devices, therefore denying them the ability to root their devices. Well, let it not be said that there is no strength in numbers, because there are. Due, in no small part to the Android community’s very public outcry, HTC has since reversed its stance on locked bootloaders. This is what HTC CEO Peter Chou had to say on the matter of locked bootloaders:
“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,” Peter Chou, CEO of HTC
I say BRAVO HTC. Now we know their’s at least one handset maker that listens to the people putting down their hard earned cash for their devices.