Amazon Kindle Fire HD and 8.9-inch Fire tablets will have locked bootloaders

All news isn’t good news and that’s exactly the case if you were eyeing up either of Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet offerings with hopes of rooting and installing a custom ROM.

Apparently, both tablets will come with a locked bootloader, which is pretty surprising to me, considering Amazon’s approach with the original Kindle Fire last year. They pretty much encouraged users to root it.

Does this mean we’ll never see custom ROM’s for either of the two devices? Probably not, but it does mean there are headaches in store for the developers who’ll be working their asses off to find a workaround.

As our friends from Android Police pointed out, this doesn’t mean there won’t be a way to gain root access — in fact, there’s already a method being sorted out — there just won’t be much outside of being able to use apps that need root that you’ll be able to do with your tablet, in terms of flashing.

For now, it’s probably better to save your money and pass on these new tablets if you’re looking to do anything “bleeding edge”. Give the devs some time to take them through the mud and back and then we might be able to suggest them for the enthusiast users.

Does this change your mind about buying a new Kindle?

Source: XDA Forums via The Digital Reader