Verizon Gives Final Word on Galaxy S III Bootloader. You Won't Be Happy!

[DroidModderX]

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Last night a ton of Buzz was created by DroidLife as they announced on their twitter feed that Verizon Support was telling people that their Samsung Galaxy S III would soon receive an OTA update which would magically unlock the bootloader on their phones. Now to Droid-Life's credit they did contact Verizon Support before reporting this, and were told the very same thing! A few folks were suspicious others were losing their minds with excitement and DroidLife was telling everyone not to hold their breath.

Today Verizon contacted DL to inform them that there had been some major confusion. The update that the Support techs were referring to would not be unlocking any bootloaders it would only be unlocking GSM roaming capabilities to make the phone Globally ready. So it now looks highly unlikely that we will ever see any sort of unlock by Verizon on this device, and why should we expect it. Samsung is being forced to release the developer version on their own.

Although this is awful news I will have to say that the development community is already rallying behind this device and making some major headway. There was Root and Custom Recovery for the SGS3 on day one, custom Roms showed up the next day, and custom kernels came just a few days later. Currently their is a bounty for the bootloader being unlocked. The bounty is up to $2,420. The developer edition may hold the key to unlocking this bootloader. I imagine that most users will have the locked version of the phone since 90% of consumers won't even know the unlocked developer version even exist when they walk in the store to buy one. This means that developers who develop for this device will more than likely see the largest audience with the locked version of this phone. Hopefully we will see AOSP for this device soon!


Via Droid-Life photo via XDA​

 

[skennelly]

So if one were to pick up the dev edition, what would that mean as far as custom roms are concerned? You couldn't run roms made for other versions of the phone from other providers, so unless some devs are actively developing for this edition then your screwed anyway, right?



*Sent from my Galaxy to yours through tapatalk

 

[meishkov]

Dam, Samsung could've changed the game. But isn't it generally accepted that the carrier aka big red is the one who demands the bootloader be locked? Why would those capitalist commies offer an unlocked bootloader when they can just sell unlocked Dev versions of the phone for $600-$700?? We should just refer to them as The Big Reds from now on.

Sent from my OG using DroidForums

 

[pc747]

There may be something in the dev edition that could help with unlocking the locked phones.

Sent from my Full AOSP on Toro-VZW using Tapatalk 2

 

[npro1464]

There may be a magic something in that dev edition. Someone at XDA might figure it out on their own. It may happen months and months later like S-off with the Rezound. I won't wait around and take that chance. I'm fed up with Verizon, and am in the process of returning the phone. I'm going to wait til May when my contract expires and get a pre-paid Nexus.

I hope for the sake of the dev community they crack it anyway, and also just to stick it to Verizon. I also hope the fallout from this and the "share everything" plans causes a mass exodus from Verizon and their stock price tumbles.

 

[cybertec69]

There may be a magic something in that dev edition. Someone at XDA might figure it out on their own. It may happen months and months later like S-off with the Rezound. I won't wait around and take that chance. I'm fed up with Verizon, and am in the process of returning the phone. I'm going to wait til May when my contract expires and get a pre-paid Nexus.

I hope for the sake of the dev community they crack it anyway, and also just to stick it to Verizon. I also hope the fallout from this and the "share everything" plans causes a mass exodus from Verizon and their stock price tumbles.

Wishful thinking, the mass market does not care and does not know about bootloaders and Roms and the sort, the Developer community is a very small percentage, that means the majority "ordinary folk, that do not even know how to use a smartphone, but still own one"" always wins. Verizon could care less if you or I left, trust me on this.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

Wishful thinking, the mass market does not care and does not know about bootloaders and Roms and the sort, the Developer community is a very small percentage, that means the majority "ordinary folk, that do not even know how to use a smartphone, but still own one"" always wins. Verizon could care less if you or I left, trust me on this.

So,your saying,their not gonna cry,begg me not to go,bend over backwards to get me to stay-is this what your tellin me?

 

[cybertec69]

So,your saying,their not gonna cry,begg me not to go,bend over backwards to get me to stay-is this what your tellin me?

unfortunately, no they will not. Its a billion $ ccorporation.

 

[sargentmajord]

unfortunately, no they will not. Its a billion $ ccorporation.

Its unfortunate but that's how a billion $ company works they are willing to shave off a few customers that are upset cuz they know they are the best an well covered service provider especially with there 4G so when u leave they know someone else will take ur spot

 

[npro1464]

I don't expect Verizon to cry me a river because I intend on leaving. I do expect there will be a number of customers leaving once they find out that their getting screwed on the new share data plans. Plenty of folks signed up for 4 GBs and unlimited, and they won't be happy when they go in for their new upgrade. They may even go along with the share everything ignorantly, then get hit with overage charges. The "nation's largest network"/"fastest 4G" only goes so far, especially when you're severely limited in using it.

 

[tgyberg]

There may be a magic something in that dev edition. Someone at XDA might figure it out on their own. It may happen months and months later like S-off with the Rezound. I won't wait around and take that chance. I'm fed up with Verizon, and am in the process of returning the phone. I'm going to wait til May when my contract expires and get a pre-paid Nexus.

I hope for the sake of the dev community they crack it anyway, and also just to stick it to Verizon. I also hope the fallout from this and the "share everything" plans causes a mass exodus from Verizon and their stock price tumbles.

Not going to happen but boy would I get a good laugh outta this! :icon_ devil:

 

[bazar6]

I saw all of this blowing up, but had my doubts too... what could possibly have made VZW change their minds and unlock the bootloader on an already great selling device? Like others have said, they don't care about us (the rooting/modding/dev'ing community), we're the minority, and sometimes a bad influence on other users who aren't as fluent in this modding scene and screw up and cost the company money (playing dumb and returning a bricked phone for instance.. as well as free tethering)... And I doubt pirate Andy, the recognized and most popular symbol for root, helped our image either lol.

 

[liftedplane]

Sadly VZW Doesn't care.

Maybe we could pull a fight club, only instead of taking out credit card companies we take out their cell towers... make it so they have the worst coverage.

meh... it would at least be fun, but it would definitely completely backfire

 

[combatmedic870]

Sadly VZW Doesn't care.

Maybe we could pull a fight club, only instead of taking out credit card companies we take out their cell towers... make it so they have the worst coverage.

meh... it would at least be fun, but it would definitely completely backfire

I like your way of thinking good sir!

 

[cybertec69]

Easy now children, LOL