It would appear that Motorola's Atrix 4G handset has had its bootloader unlocked, due to a combination of both leaked information and community contributions. As reported by BriefMobile, code from the upcoming 2.3 (Gingerbread) update Motorola was releasing happened to leak early. It became apparent that Motorola intended to unlock the bootloaders with this update. The community at XDA-Developers worked on a solution while waiting, allowing Atrix owners to unlock their bootloader even if they are using Android 2.2 (Froyo). As posted by Engadget, the community of Motorola fans has made their thoughts about the locked bootloader very clear.
After a Facebook poll posted by Motorola around April 2011, the community voice was loud and clear. The top rated demands were all to unlock the bootloader, while another popular demand was to allow users to remove Motoblur. With the unlocked bootloader, coders will be able to build their own custom ROMs for their handsets, meaning that people can remove Motoblur and load another Android ROM onto their device. Motorola promised updates and unlocked bootloaders to the community, and it looks like the company are honoring that promise, having stated the following:
"We completely understand the operator requirement for security to the end user, and as well, want to support the developer communities desire to use these products as a development platform. It is our intention to enable the unlockable/relockable bootloader currently found on Motorola XOOM across our portfolio of devices starting in late 2011, where carriers and operators will allow it."
The official thread at XDA-Developers is located here, and displays a handful of screenshots from the unlocking process.
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