Not long ago we learned that Sony Ericsson planned on allowing the bootloaders in their upcoming phones to be unlocked. This huge leap into the development community was unexpected as previous Xperia owners have been plagued with this issue for a good while. Even manufacturers known to cater to developers like HTC have started locking up their devices as seen with the Thunderbolt and Incredible S.
Sony had already released their unlockable bootloader site and has taken this new adventure a little further. They now have a complete guide on building and flashing Linux kernels for their new devices such as the Xperia Arc and Play. Something like this is huge for developers and reduces the learning curve involved as the instructions come straight from the source.
Source: Android Central via Sony Ericsson Developer Blog
