What's the definition of LOCKED vs UNLOCKED?

[koam]

I bought my Nexus 6 from BestBuy with no carrier attached. Just the phone.

I see people calling a buy like that or from the Google Play store "buying an unlocked N6"

When I booted to the bootloader screen it says "Device is LOCKED"

So my dumb questions are: what's the definition of unlocked? are there multiple levels of unlocking that I'm confusing here? did my getting and AT&T SIM card and installing a pushed OTA update (LMW48W) take the phone from Unlocked on the boot screen (I had never checked when the phone was new before the AT&T SIM card) to Locked on the boot screen?

 

[sniffs]

Depends on what you are referring to. There are locked and unlocked bootloaders, meaning you can't flash any ROM you'd like. Think of the ROM is the OS..

And then there's SIM locked, meaning you can't take your device and pop another carrier's SIM inside it to get service.

 

[robert7904]

Sounds to me there referring to "unlocked" as in sim card... I purchased my N6 from Amazon.. Like you no carrier attached.... My phone is unlocked as in the sim... I can purchase a sim from any supported carrier and use it in my phone..

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