Okay, maybe the chain of causation isn't quite what I make it out to be in the title, but it's a start. Someone working for Motorola responded to a disgruntled customer's question about the bootloader with the following:
if you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we'll continue with our strategy that is working thanks
Ouch. The costumer's natural response was to flip off Moto and say he's switching to HTC. Honestly, as much as anyone would like to give grief to Motorola for this, it's some frustrated employee that has to sift through thousands of video comments and tweets and, like Motorola said, it's not their true nature. And I don't just say that cause I love my Droid X. I do; but as much as ROMs are a reality and the boot-loader doesn't concern me, I hate being told what to do. The fact that Motorola launched top level hardware with what was at that time the second 4.3" screen phone without any concern for devs is annoying.
Since this comment hit all possible news wires, Motorola has deleted it, apologized, but also finally clarified their stance on the boot-loader issue. They claim they are working on a "solution that will enable developers to use our devices as a development platform while still protecting our users' interests". Promising, but Motorola isn't known for being the quickest to deliver on their promises, OTAs or not. At least now we've got something to call them on when if they don't deliver.
Photo: intomobile.com
Martin Krischik
Until this is sorted out it will be no XOOM for me. If I wanted to be told what to do with my device I would by iPhone and iPad.