Many consumers choose HTC handsets from all Android-flavored devices due to the company’s “openness” — HTC is the only manufacturer that generously provides unlocked bootloaders for its smartphones. These tools make it possible to install custom software on the devices trading in their warranties, of course. HTC has unlocked bootloaders for so many handsets that no one ever doubted their latest and coolest phone would come with it, too. Unfortunately, the US version of the HTC One X has no official bootloader, which surprised all One X users.

Only yesterday AT&T launched the HTC One X in the US, and some attentive users found out their newly purchased One X smartphones weren’t compatible with the bootloader unlock tool provided by the company not so long ago. Though many developers can say it’s still possible to root the HTC phones even without the existence of those tools, everyone who has ever tried to install custom ROMs or other versions of Android OS on an HTC smartphone or tablet knows it’s extremely difficult.

So now it turns out the AT&T version of the HTC One X is not compatible with the unlock bootloader tool. But what’s interesting — the Canadian version of the phone launched via Rogers is identical to the AT&T HTC One X, but it does work with the tool. The international version of the HTC One X supports the tool, too. Here’s what HTC says about this:

“HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we’ll continue to unlock additional devices in the future”.

From the statement above we can understand AT&T is the only mobile operator that blocks the ability of using the unlock bootloader tool, so the users from the UK and other European countries have no reason to worry — their phones will most likely be “rootable”.

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