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