AndroidMixer

This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. I deliberately avoided discussing this subject until some official word was released from either Verizon of Motorola. Well, today Motorola made a statement to engadget regarding this topic. Most hackers made claims that the bootloader on the Droid X was locked down and this made the device near impossible to mod. According to Motorola you will not brick your device but it will be useless.

Motorola’s primary focus is the security of our end users and protection of their data, while also meeting carrier, partner and legal requirements. The Droid X and a majority of Android consumer devices on the market today have a secured bootloader. In reference specifically to eFuse, the technology is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested versions of software. If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed.Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats. Motorola has been a long time advocate of open platforms and provides a number of resources to developers to foster the ecosystem including tools and access to devices via MOTODEV at http://developer.motorola.com

There you have it folks, the Droid X is essentially locked down. If you install software on your handset this is not “approved” you will only be able to boot into recovery mode. Although this is better than bricking your brand new device, it’s still renders your handset useless. This move by Motorola is not a good one and it goes against the open nature of Android. Developers will likely shy away from this phone. If you’re into customizing your phone the way you like, get something other than the Droid X. its rumored that the upcoming Droid 2 has the same internals as the X so avoid that one as well. If you don’t mind stock firmware and can wait forever for updates than this move shouldn’t bother you anyway.

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