Sony Ericsson confirmed joining OHA, to develop Android platform phone!
Wow, first its CEO, Dick Komiyama, said that Sony Ericsson is unofficially interested in developing Android as part of its line up. Next, Mat Lindoff, Sony Ericsson CTO, revealed that his technical team is not really impressed with Android.
But now, it is officially confirmed that Sony Ericsson, the Japan-Sweden venture, is joining Open Handset Alliance, an organization to support Android platform development, thus having intention to develop a handset based on Android platform. Yet, there is no announced target, when will Sony Ericsson launch its first Android-based device.
Rikko Sakaguchi, CVP and head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson said:
We believe Sony Ericsson can bring a wealth of experience in making consumer focused multimedia handsets with new user experience to the Alliance drawing on the successes of the Walkman and Cyber-shot sub-brands. Sony Ericsson is a strong supporter of open operating systems and we believe the Open Handset Alliance offers an exciting opportunity for a new and unique user experience only Sony Ericsson can deliver.
From my point of view, this decision is based on the trend of the technology itself. The popularity of Android seems becoming new ammo to help Sony Ericsson battling against new big giants like Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry. With the decreasing of Windows Mobile, and the unwillingness of using Nokia’s Symbian, the other option is using Google’s Android, which is developed on top of Linux platform.
Currently, Sony Ericsson is the fourth largest mobile manufacturer in the world. With lack of new improvement, it is not a surprise if we heard the sales combination of iPhone and BlackBerry may outperform Sony Ericsson’s total sales. In 2008 itself, the sales isn’t as as good as the previous year, which definitely will not give any bonus for Dick Komiyama.
Will Android really help Sony Ericsson? One thing for sure, Android is actually drives some curiousity from techies out there. If Sony Ericsson can build better (and more beautiful) form factor than the current and upcoming Android phones, T-Mobile G1 or Kogan Agora, completed with full-functional feature like push email, instant messaging, social networking, and multimedia, I guess it will be a killer product for Sony Ericsson’s 2009 high-to-mid end products.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Wow, Android in SonyEricsson… the sound is good. SonyEricsson is becoming a phone developer who has a lot of operating system for their product, after Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile and now Android. Before Sony join with Ericsson, Sony has filled their product with Palm OS and Windows CE. I think Android is a new OS for web-centric smartphone device. Bravo for Google Android developers.