As HMD Global continues their move into the Android smartphone market using their investment in the Nokia name, both their chief product officer and chief technology officer have indicated the company is planning to implement an unlocked bootloader as part of the update to Android 8.0 Oreo on the Nokia 8 smartphone. Presumably this strategy would eventually extend to the entire portfolio of devices.
One of the nice things about this revelation is that HMD Global appears to be not only seeking input from users and potential customers, but they are willing to work on incorporating this feedback into their product roadmaps. In this case, chief product officer Juho Sarvikas was on Twitter providing an update on the company's work to deploy the Android Oreo update to the Nokia 8. This prompted followers to jump in with other requests like the unlocked bootloader so that custom ROMs could be developed.
Initially Sarvikas responded that unlocking the bootloader was a problem due to security concerns. However, after some further review with the help of chief technology officer Mikko Jaakkola, Sarvikas came back with an update indicating unlocking the bootloader was on the list of tasks the company was working on. Both individuals did indicate that HMD Global does have other items on their list that are higher priority, like getting Android Oreo out the door.
Great feedback. Chatted with our CTO @MikkoLJaakkola and agreed to look at this. Please allow us to focus on ramp up first. #heretolearn
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) September 28, 2017
Does HMD Global's willingness to unlock the bootloader and do things like share kernel mods back to the community make you any more interested in their Nokia smartphones?
sources: Juho Sarvikas (Twitter), Mikko Jaakkola (Twitter)
