Last week, Huawei’s CEO Richard Yu told Android Authority that the recently announced Mate 30 series bootloader may be unlockable. It is obvious that their intention here is to make it easier for users to side load Google Play apps and services on the device – which are otherwise unavailable to the device out of box due to the recent US trade ban.
However, it seems like that will not happen after all. A Huawei spokesman had apparently reached out to Android Authority to clarify that the company in fact, has “no plans” to actually unlock the bootloader of the Mate 30 series smartphones. Still, bootloader unlocking remains a viable option in the near future if Huawei is unable to come out with any effective workarounds to bring the Google Play apps and services to their new devices.
The issue with bootloader unlocking however, is that it opens the device to a swathe of potential security risks. For instance, if a thief get holds of a device with unlocked bootloader, he could boot the device into custom recovery environment and make use of adb commands to access data on the phone. This essentially bypasses the password which you’d used to secure the device itself.
Therefore, most major smartphone makers will have their bootloader locked by default and it may not be wise for Huawei to oppose this convention. For now, let’s hope there are other workarounds to bring Google Play apps and services to the Mate 30 series or else we will definitely miss out some of the few best smartphones in the market.
Even without Google Play apps and services, Huawei remain confident that they will be able to ship as much as 20 million smartphones for the Mate 30 series.
Source: Android Authority
