Developers rise up against Motorola and Verizon over bootloader controversy

In a half-baked attempt to appease its more technically-minded users, who have long been clamouring for a fully unlockable bootloader, Motorola Mobility yesterday announced a European ‘Developer Edition’ of its flagship RAZR smartphone. As we predicted, the handset has gone down like a lead balloon.

Incensed by the prospect of shelling out an extra €499 to have full control of their hardware, users of the popular xda-developers forum have launched a full-blown campaign against the manufacturer, calling and emailing executives at Motorola and its key carrier partner Verizon Wireless to demand total access. Using the hashtag #OPMOSH2, developers have also taken to Twitter and Facebook, bombarding Motorola’s accounts with messages in an attempt to repeat the successes of similar campaigns against HTC and Asus.

The effort is a reboot of ‘OPERATION: Make Ourselves Heard’, a campaign launched by xda user ‘[TSON]’ at the end of December which has so far generated almost 6,000 signatures for a change.org petition. Writing in an updated forum post, [TSON] rails against Motorola’s recent decision, describing the company’s “lies, slanderous ways, and tendency to flat out prove time and time again that it cares not for its customers”:

This is unacceptable for those of us who dished out 700 dollars, full retail, to get our phones in hopes that our devices would be unlocked, and even MORE unacceptable for Droid 3, Bionic, and other Motorola users. DOWNRIGHT UNACCEPTABLE. Motorola has screwed us over. Again.

Whether #OPMOSH2 will finally manage to change Moto’s mind remains to be seen. After spending the time to produce and announce the RAZR Developer Edition, we imagine the company will want to stick to its guns, but we’ll update this story if we get more info.