Almost two years after launching its first device, HMD finally provides support for bootloader unlocks

Since its resurgence early last year, the Nokia brand—under HMD—has quickly become one of the more popular and customer-oriented smartphone brands on the globe, a road that has seen it become the ninth-largest smartphone company in the world. In spite of that, HMD has taken an almost infuriating stance on community development support for its devices. Nokia devices have had no support for bootloader unlocks, and only a select few even have their kernel sources available to the public. Until now, that is.

HMD, earlier in the week, finally announced the launch of its new bootloader unlock program. The program will allow users to unlock their bootloaders and make modifications to the backends of their devices. Of course, there are a few caveats.

• Bootloader unlocks are irreversible
• All data is wiped when the device is unlocked
• The device’s warranty is voided
• Unspecified functionalities may be lost, including DRM, encyrption, and even some apps

At the moment, only the Nokia 8 is supported, which is a bit underwhelming. It is, however, a step in the right direction.