Were you one of the people out there bummed to find out that Verizon’s Galaxy S III has a locked bootloader? Well, Samsung feels your pain, as the Korean based manufacturer has decided to offer a “developer edition” Verizon Galaxy S III through its developer portal for $599.
Sammy is taking matters into its own hands by doing right by the people, giving Big Red customers an opportunity to buy the GSIII unlocked essentially. This is pretty cool considering how awful Samsung has been in the past with customer appreciation (speaking from experience). This measure the Korean manufacturer is taking seems right, especially since all the other major US carriers (Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile) don’t lock the bootloader on their Galaxy S III.
That said, if you plan to buy this to do some tinkering like rooting and flashing custom ROM builds into the phone — you risk voiding your warranty and the chance of screwing-up your phone. Samsung will sell these phones directly on the developer portion of its site: developer.samsung.com.
If Samsung getting the four major wireless providers in the United States to carry essentially the same Galaxy S III as the International version (design-wise) wasn’t enough to convince you that the company has come into its own, then this should. Sammy isn’t taking any more crap from the carriers stateside, and this “developer edition” workaround proves it. Good job, Samsung!
[via Android Central]