You can unlock the Sony Ericsson XPERIA bootloader

Sony Ericsson has listened into the developers requests and will allow them to unlock the bootloader on the latest XPERIA smartphones Arc, Neo, Pro and Play. The process will be a secure and legal and will become possible this spring.

This is surely a good news for all the Android developers. According to Sony Ericsson, it has found a way to allow the devs unlock the boot loader in a secure way and without sharing it. The compatible XPERIA phones will be Arc, Neo, Pro and Play. The XPERIA X10 family will not be considered "due to technical and legal reasons."

Not all the available model variants will be able to take advantage of the unlocking though. The carrier-locked devices and some region-specific ones will not be able to get their bootloaders unlocked. If your XPERIA phone is able to connect to the Fastboot tool in the Android SDK, then your phone meets the requirements and you will be OK.

Sony Ericsson also warns that you may void your warranty if you use unsigned ROMs and in case of damage you might need to pay a handling fee at the service center. They recommend that only advance developers do bootloader unlock.