Sony Ericsson has announced that early this spring, they will allow some of it’s cell phone owners an open bootloader option to flash their own firmware. This means that you can flash your own Favorite Android ROM on certain Sony phones. The phone mentioned include many Sony Xperia including the Neo, Arc, Play and Pro. Even better there is even discussion of a Sony service to repair accidentally bricked phones while trying to upload a new ROM. So you can try new ROMs at your hearts content before Sony Ericsson or your carrier will release them without fear of permanently destroying your device. Unfortunately the Sony Xperia X10 or its variants will not included in the list of. Sony has indicated that some carriers will disallow the feature, so if this is important to you, it is best to get an unlocked Xperia.
Sony’s move opens up a world of opportunity for Xperia owners and marks a big contrast to other handset makers. For example, Motorola has increasingly made it harder and harder to use custom ROMs on successive generations of their phones. They have even created bootloaders that will brick the phone if they find an unsanctioned ROM. While HTC has been friendly towards the custom ROM community, they have not outright sanctioned the practice. One of the appeals of the Nexus phones have been the relative ease which you can upload your own firmware. Hopefully many cell phone buyers will see this as a differentiators for Sony Xperia phones and reward Sony for this move. It may also spur on Xperia owners to try new custom ROMS.
Got it! Thanks a lot again for hleipng me out!