Back in October, Motorola announced to their hacker customers that the Droid Razr would be the company’s first device with an unlockable bootloader. Well, both the Droid Razr and its better-balanced sequel, the Droid Razr Maxx are here, and they both have locked bootloaders. Today, however, Motorola made good on its promise and announced that a special edition of the Razr, the Motorola Razr Developer Edition, will be launching soon.
The Developer Edition will be available initially in Europe, but the company also promised that a US version will be arriving in “the coming months.” The hack-friendly phone is already up for pre-order (EU customers only) for 499.00 €.
Out-of-the-box, the Razr Developer Edition will be identical to the existing Droid Razr. That means you’ll get the same 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, dual-core OMAP processor (1.2GHz), and 7.1mm thickness. In fact, on first use, the bootloader of the Developer Edition will still be locked. The only difference is that you’ll be able to visit Motorola’s developer website to unlock the boot loader.
Why introduce a separate device instead of simply unlocking the bootloader of the standard Razr? For users who would never hack an unlocked bootloader is an unneccessary security risk. But, in actuality, this probably has more to do with money. Carriers like Verizon don’t particularly want you to be able to hack your phone. It makes you more likely to do as you please with it and less likely to pay them for extra services.
On a hacked phone, all of that Verizon crapware can be easily removed, you can tether without paying VZW a second time for your data, and you can remove any user profiling software that they can use to profit off of you.
So instead of a Nexus-like device that launches with an unlocked bootloader, we have a limited edition version of the Droid Razr being released months after the initial launch. By that time, seven new high-end Android phones will have replaced the Droid Razr. Going at this rate, there will be three new additions to the Razr family alone.
Releasing the Developer Edition does show that Motorola is listening to the development community, but don’t take it for more than it is. It’s mostly a way for Moto to say “see, we did it” to their hacking and rooting customers. Those customers, however, may see it as too little and too late.