Developer Versions of Droid M, Droid Razr HD, and Droid Razr MAXX HD coming!

[DroidModderX]

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I know the photo does not match the title of this post! Motorola announced its new lineup of phones today and it was all very exciting. The phones will be incremental updates to the current lineup and will feature HD screens. The Razr HD, Razr HD Maxx, and Razr M all look to be pretty sick devices. Motorola also announced today that they would make developer editions of all the phones. This is good news right?! I guess it depends on how you look at it. This means that Verizon has no plans of selling devices with unlocked bootloaders. A "very scientific" survey amongst android fanboys especially of the Droid kind was conducted today over at Droid-Life. The question was asked "are you buying any of Motorola's new Razr devices". The response was a bit surprising. Almost 3,000 participants 65 percent said they wouldn't buy any of the devices, over 1,000 or 25 percent said they would buy the Razr MAXX HD, while only 125 or 3 percent said they would consider purchasing a developer edition version of any of the three phones. Keep in mind the survey was conducted on a website that was built on the popularity of the Original Droid amongst readers who are Android fanboys. The overwhelming majority of consumers will buy their phones from Verizon, Amazon, or any of the other of the Big Box stores and will never be presented with the option to purchase the developer edition. They will end up with a phone that has a locked bootloader. When they decide they want to modify their phone they will end up on a forum site like this one and realize they have a phone with a locked bootloader that is not easily modified.

I still do not like this approach by Verizon. If you are going to allow the consumer to run a device that is unlocked on your network, and the only thing you are worried about is warranty replacements, why not just have an unlock tool that has to be registered to the device which voids the warranty when the phone has been unlocked. This way every consumer has the option, and does not have to purchase a separate developer friendly version.

All this being said. Kexec will more than likely be ported to the consumer version of the new Razr phones and it won't truely matter at that point that phones have locked bootloaders. What are your thoughts? Are you excited about these phones and do you care if the bootloaders are unlocked? If you are considering buying one will it be the consumer version or the developer edition?

Survey results via Droid-Life

 

[94lt1]

I'm all in on the maxx HD... hadn't even considered the developers version... until now...hehe.

 

[sNuFfYStiGLiTZ]

Now that I have to buy phones at full price to keep my unlimited data plan with Verizon, I may as well get the developer version of the Maxx HD. Although I want to wait and see how the Galaxy Nexus 2 turns out and if it can blow these phones away. Same thing with the Note 2. That's IF the Note 2 and the Nexus 2 come out for Big Red :/

 

[tjk629]

I'm sorry, but I see no point to these developer phones. They are completely redunant, and considering motorola has an unlocking tool you might as well save money, and have people use that.

It's not like over 10% of these phone owners are even going to unlock their bootloaders. Verizon really is going overboard for what I assume is like >5% of their customers.

The phones are registered (well for HTC at least) so you know which one are voided of the warranty. Honeslty, there is no logical reason to not just let them do it.

 

[skennelly]

Don't forget that Verizon said they would not allow unlocked Motorola phones to connect to their network. I think this is shaping up to piss a whole lot of people off that buy the dev phone and can't use it. I wouldn’t put it past vzw to screw a lot of people with this.

 

[johnomaz]

I loved and still love my old DroidX, but I will never buy another Moto phone. I know Verizon has the say in the locked bootloader crap, but honestly, Moto could do a crappy job like Samsung does so it can be easily broken.

 

[Barkleyfan]

I have a RAZR Maxx. I'll ride it out, then evaluate options. Most likely, i will switch carriers. I like Motorola hardware, but not enough to deal with Verizon. Unlimited TMobile is far more attractive than unlimited Verizon at this point.

 

[bacK_N_87]

This is dumb on some greedy [stuff]. Just offer an unlock tool. Those who aren't interested won't know or bother.