Sony Ericsson: We�re sticking with Android for now

EXCLUSIVE: Windows Phone 7 still a possibility but not a focus

Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it will continue to put its weight behind Google�s Android operating system, although it says that it's still keeping the door open to Microsoft and its Windows Phone 7 mobile phone system.

�We are keeping a watching brief�, Steven Walker, acting head of global marketing at Sony Ericsson told Pocket-lint in a one-to-one interview at CES in Las Vegas.

�We've done a lot of work with Microsoft over the years. We�ve launched a number of 6.xx products, but we made a decision not to bring a product to market in the first wave. We absolutely maintain to keep an open mind towards Windows Phone 7. We continue to engage in a relationship with Microsoft, but we haven�t made any concrete announcement about when and how we would introduce Windows Phone 7 into the portfolio�.

Walker says that Sony Ericsson is instead focusing on Android, galvanising behind the OS to create a strong ecosystem for consumers:

�We do think it�s important at this moment in time to focus our external messaging on Android based products. We see the need as an industry to galvanise behind the Android ecosystem to create a strong ecosystem for consumers�.

Why? Walker says the answer is simple:

�We need to do this so that there will only be a certain number of eco-systems that will prevail. Developers won�t develop for 17 eco-systems. Consumers won�t choose between 100 different eco-systems. In the end only a certain number will prevail�.

But it�s not going to be Android and only Android; like Motorola, Walker does acknowledge that the company will have to embrace other operating systems in the future:

�We shouldn�t limit ourselves to one opportunity, but we aren�t yet ready to make any specific announcement about products. At this moment in time, there is clearly a galvanising within the industry around Android as a creditable alternative to what�s out there, and we think that�s a good thing�.

When asked as to whether he was worried about a possible fragmentation of the Android OS occurring, Walker was confident that Google will sort out the main issue currently on the minds of most high-end Android users: which version are they running?

�Of course some people care. In the higher end of the market the spec savvy consumers do. If you take the broad church of Android users there will be a big chunk of people that don�t care, there will be people that upgrade and don�t notice. I do think that the release thing is an issue of this particular moment. I think once Android becomes a much more accepted part of the market overall I think the release itself will become a less critical part of the whole solution. Right now there is a lot of focus on what release of Android it is on. It�s the first question people ask �which version of Android is it on�, but in a year�s time I don�t think it will be the first question people ask, it will be in the list of questions but it won�t be the first question�.

So does that mean only new phones with the latest versions of the OS? It looks likely:

�That said we are launching a product in Q1 of this year running 2.3, we have recognised the need to have our products on the latest release. Last year we didn�t anticipate the strength of feeling that consumers would have towards the Android release. And again that was a learning experience of the first year of mass market Android smartphones�.

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