Uh-oh.

Here comes the cavalry. According to a leaked doc from the Droid-Life forums, the first and perhaps only moddable Motorola Verizon handset is going bye-bye. If that is true, and as a result the phone is discontinued to make way for the Droid 2, it is likely that the Droid will become somewhat of a collector’s item amongst Verizon users looking to mod their devices.

Though, in reality, if you haven’t picked up a Droid yet, you probably never will. Since the Droid X was released yesterday, and is much more appropriately named, I feel like most people won’t miss the device too much.

There is a possibility, however, that Google would have asked Motorola not to lock down the bootloader on the Droid 2 as well. But since the direction Motorola is going seems to be once of draconian eFuse domination, I doubt that’s going to actually happen. But what of the legacy of the Droid? It’s important to know that Motorola has vigilantly prevented users from hacking their phones, encrypting the bootloader and threatening to brick the phone if the user tries to mess with it. While the eFuse technology is not confirmed to actually brick the phone, the momentum has already left Motorola getting defensive. They’ve already claimed that if you want to buy a hackable phone, get it from another manufacturer.

I like Motorola’s phones. I think they make good hardware and they don’t try to screw up the user experience too much. There is something to be said for a company that learns from its mistakes. But this bootloader issue doesn’t seem to be a mistake. It’s a calculated business decision, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I am disappointed in the company, though not really surprised.

Let’s hope Google coerces Motorola to keep the bootloader hackable on the Droid 2. I don’t think it will happen, but it’s been a hot summer and magic may still strike.