In an unexpected and somewhat uncharacteristic move, Sony Ericsson launched its new site this week for unlocking the bootloader on select Android phones coming out this year and into the future. Owners of the 2011 Xperia line of smartphones (Play, arc, neo, and pro) can follow instructions detailing how they can unlock their bootloaders and enable loading of custom ROMs. While SE goes on to explain that some SIM-locked devices won’t be compatible, and doesn’t skimp on the warnings about the possible negative impacts of using the software to unlock, we can’t help but applaud them for being so hacker-friendly.
Sony Ericsson is the first of the major Android manufacturers to make handsets and openly aid in enabling the ability to load custom ROMs (Google developer devices notwithstanding), and so the line has been added to the select group of ‘Root-Friendly’ devices collected by development team Unrevoked. HTC had been known as one of the least-combative manufacturers to the efforts of the Android-modding community, but recently have begun to lock devices down to a greater extent. Our impression is that this is a move that really can’t hurt Sony Ericsson’s image, and is one that we wish more phone-makers would consider making -- how about you?
Source: Sony Ericsson
Photo Credit: Vlad Savov, Engadget.com
