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Now that the successor to the most popular Android phone of all time is out, here's a bit of unexpected S4 news for you all. According to numerous reports (including this one from TechCrunch), come June 26th, Google will start to offer an unlocked version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 with stock Android.



"The S4 is not only carrier unlocked, but it also has a fully unlocked bootloader. That means that owners of the device can load their own software on to the device, including things like CyanogenMod, which allows for extremely deep device software customization options. In other words, this new unlocked S4 will essentially be the ultimate developer plaything, but again it's likely to have more or less niche appeal because of the high price tag."



 

That price tag? $649, available on both AT&T and T-Mobile. I'll throw this question out to all of you: Would you spend this much for [arguably] the most powerful smartphone without the [arguably] most annoying manufacturer skin (Samsung's TouchWiz)?

 



 

(Source: TechCrunch)
Looks good.. but this brings up a question as far as Webroot goes.

 

""The S4 is not only carrier unlocked, but it also has a fully unlocked bootloader. That means that owners of the device can load their own software on to the device, including things like CyanogenMod, which allows for extremely deep device software customization options. In other words, this new unlocked S4 will essentially be the ultimate developer plaything, but again it's likely to have more or less niche appeal because of the high price tag.""

 

Is this unlocked condition akin to being a "rooted" device and what does that mean for installations of WSA on the device?  According to this answer  rooted devices cannot be supported.

 

Jim, what are your thoughts?
I think we'll need to confirm some things about the permissions settings in the stock bootloader / android os. But my guess is that you would have to use the unlocked bootloader option to load a new bootloader and then load CyanogenMod or what have you to actually root it. If that's the case, it would be supportable up until anyone takes that action. We'll look into it more and provide an official answer when we're sure of which permissions are available by default.

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