Samsung has allied with Verizon Wireless to bring out a developer-friendly version of the Wireless Galaxy S3 smartphone.

The ‘developer edition’ model will be available to customers on the Verizon network for a reported price of approximately $600 and will contain an unlockable bootloader, after criticism of Verizon for the previous model which couldn’t be modified.

This will result in developers being able to modify the phone’s operating system.

Previously, Verizon had disallowed bootloader encrypting on the Samsung S3 because they felt their customer support service would be compromised, as well as worry that a modified phone would struggle to connect to their network.

It’s worth noting here that this won’t be the first unlocked Galaxy S3 on the market. Other networks, such as T-Mobile and Sprint have models with unlocked bootloaders, so Verizon is playing catch-up here somewhat.

There has been no word from Samsung yet on when the machines will be publicly available, but the developer edition will only be sold from Samsung’s developer portal.

In a joint statement, the two companies stated: “There are many enthusiasts and professional developers that are interested in customising their device.

“Unlocking the bootloader can put the stability of the phone in jeopardy; therefore, only experienced developers should attempt to unlock the bootloader”, the statement warns.

Samsung equally warns that anyone tempted to unlock the bootloader to install custom software only to damage, or ‘brick’, the phone afterwards won’t be covered by the phone’s warranty.

Do you think all bootloaders should be unlocked? Are the warranty worries enough of a deterrent to stop people tinkering with the OS who shouldn’t be?