HTC CEO Peter Chou announced that HTC will be shipping its smartphones with open bootloaders. The phones will be "unlocked."
The HTC website is currently showing details for the HTC EVO 3D, HTC Sensation 4G, and HTC ThunderBolt, with the screen turned into the "o" in the word you. The announcement is in the spirit of their motto.
Usually smartphones have locked bootloaders. The bootloader
initiates the operating system, such as Android 2.2 Froyo. If the bootloader is locked, the smartphone can only use the operating sytem that
comes with the phone.
"There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones, I want you to know that we've listened. Today, I'm
confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices.
Thanks for your passion, support and patience."
He did not
mention that, if you change the operating system, you may no longer be
able to get tech support from your carrier and maybe HTC. Sometimes,
users who mess around with the operating systems on their smartphones
find that they break their phones and can no longer use the phone.