April 22, 2009 by Tap
After being out of the news for some time now (certainly as far as Android is concerned) this seems to be Sony Ericsson's week in the spotlight as more Android-related news comes to light.
After last weeks quote by Sony Ericssons' CEO seemed to put the breaks on the company's Android plans, a short post by DigiTimes claims that according to the Chinese Commercial Times newspaper, Orange will be launching a Sony Ericsson Android phone in time for the 2009 year-end holiday season. While some see that as pure speculation it does actually make sense and backs up a similar report which first surfaced last month. Looks like we can't rule Sony Ericsson out of the Android phone race just yet.
Source: DigiTimes
April 21, 2009 by Tap
Back in December last year when Sony Ericsson joined the Open Handset Alliance, the company’s head of Creation and Development, Rikko Sakaguchi, had this to say: "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."
A few months on and we are still waiting for this unique experience which it seems won't be coming any time soon. That's according to Chief Executive Hideki Komiyama who, in an interview with Reuters, said that Android "does require a lot of evaluation, as well as a lot of testing, a lot of acceptance from a consumer viewpoint, and there is still some time to go."
So does that mean Sony Ericsson is actually working on a new Android phone or is the company too busy fire fighting just to stay afloat? I understand the need for evaluation and thorough testing but that doesn’t seem to have stopped HTC from releasing two phones already - granted they have been OHA members a lot longer. As for acceptance from a consumer viewpoint, I think T-Mobile's successful launch of the G1 phone should go a long way to confirming that.
Given Sony Ericssons' financial woes of late it's not surprising that they haven't been too keen to take a risk on Android but let's hope they finally bite the bullet. Of course I'm speaking entirely as an Android fan and it's not to say that releasing an Android phone is going to turn things around for the company, it's just that I'd like to see something like the X1 running Android.
Source: Reuters
March 25, 2009 by Tap
Rumours of HTC's Android Hero phone surfaced in the middle of February this year when HTC's supposed 2009 line-up was revealed on ppcgeeks. We haven't heard much about it since but it looks like the Hero has finally been picked up by Orange.
Orange France has already released the G1 as the HTC Dream (they couldn't use the G1 branding as T-Mobile has exclusive rights to that) and now, according to Mobinaute, they will be following that up with the HTC Hero. But that's not all - they reckon that the Hero will be followed by another Android smartphone a few weeks after that. Orange is definitely on a mission here and is keen to capitalise on what they see as the revenue potential of the Android Market.
Even more interesting, although this could be speculation, is that by the end of this year, Orange, in addition to HTC, plans to have Android phones from Motorola, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. That last one especially comes as a welcome surprise as Sony Ericsson, although a member of the Open Handset Alliance, seems to have been very quiet on the Android front this year.
On the OS front, word is that Orange will be releasing the cupcake update for the HTC Dream by the end of April and a second "major update" a month later. Sounds mighty interesting.
Source: Mobinaute