As expected during the roll out of a new Galaxy flagship every year, Samsung has quietly listed a little-marketed and carrier-approved Developer Edition of its flagship.
While identical in terms of specifications to all of the carrier and unlocked versions of the device, the Developer Editions are notable for featuring unlocked bootloaders meant for use by enthusiasts and developers for testing and developing alternative builds of Android. Samsung began offering the Developer Editions with the release of the S IV last year and at that time offered versions compatible with both AT&T and Verizon, in response to enthusiast and developer demand for devices with unlocked bootloaders.
More recently starting within the last two years, manufacturers such as Samsung have decided to take it upon themselves to offer devices directly with unlocked bootloaders for developers and enthusiasts, typically at a premium above carrier retail price in order to address that demand that carriers could not fill due to concerns relating to customer support and security.
Previously, enthusiasts and developers had to hope that carriers would ship their devices with unlocked bootloaders, as carriers began to focus on device security for consumers, many carriers decided to ship their devices with locked bootloaders after it was determined that the demand for them wasn’t strong enough to ship consumer devices with them unlocked, a practice that continues to this day across all major US carriers.
While Samsung has not listed pricing and launch details for its Verizon-powered Developer Edition, pricing is usually set at $50 more than carrier pricing for an outright purchase, which would make this version $699, rather than the $649 that Samsung is pushing for carrier pricing of the standard S5 at full price.
More details on availability and pricing are expected within the next few weeks as Samsung begins its official rollout of the S5 this weekend in the US with all four US carriers preparing launches and other brands preparing their own launches, such as MetroPCS for later this month.
Bootloader locks are no more a security issue than locks on an 8th story window. Its a control and limitations issue. I agree that if you play with it. You should pay if you mess it up. Many like to mess them up then run screaming for warranties. But you have many like myself, that have a drawer with about 3 phones that got cooked from “developing” new ideas, os, etc. As far as bootloaders go, they by no means stop it. As virtual partitioning. I.e. safestrap simply invokes no longer making the bootloader a part of the boot process. So it more or less becomes useless. Of course their is support. Well its understood you cant have support for every known rom or tinker known. But you could have support trained to spot it and cease contact. Most carrier support rarely speak english or even know what they are talking about with the non tinkered phones. So before we can point to a problrem, lets find a solution, or middle ground so to speak. As it seems such the norm these days to just point fingers when we could all just shake handd and smile. P.s. developers, as i am one. Take responsibilty for your lapse of judgement. Or should i say kids and noobs having no idea what they are doing, and when you tear it up. Use it as a learning tool. Not a way to screw the carrier out of money. You did it. You fix it…
And on another note. Carriers, manufacturers, stop cramming all the useless, add sending, junk bloat ware apps that we will never even open. Developer or not. We dont want them. Dont use them. Instead make it part of the setup process. To understand what they are and if we want them we choose. Your letting marketings ideals of shove it in their face make you disliked. Some are good. Kudos to Verizons latest text app. Awesome job, techs!!! But lots of others… Just stop… Now you have the carrier. And manufacturer shoving them down your throat. And take for instance , samsung and Verizon. They are the same apps. Different name. How many clouds do i need?? Lol lets work as one , as we should in all aspects of life, and i bet we’d reach the top faster…