14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has unveiled its first handset powered by Google's Android operating system, the Xperia X10, in late 2009, and now it is gearing up to have the device launched via various carriers around the world. The handset in itself is very appealing, with only one major drawback, the fact that it runs under Android 1.6, and not one of the newer flavors of the operating system.
However, it seems that the handset vendor is set to upgrade the Xperia X10 to newer versions of the platform, even if it launches it with 1.6 on board. Even if it does not say when that happens, the company does say that updates will arrive, mainly aimed at making the phone more competitive on the market. Sumit Malhotra has recently posted a new piece on the Sony Ericsson Product Blog, where he says that the phone is competitive with the OS it runs under at the moment, and that it is also upgradeable to newer flavors of Android.
“I am not trying to hide from the fact that there are platform upgrades between android 1.6 and 2.1, if utilized can enhance the experience for developers and users. Having that said, I have had discussions with carriers that are very sensitive and concerned generally about taking on devices in their range that are not competetive enough. I have faced head to head comparisons between Xperia X10 and generic 2.1 Android devices (as well as other OS) and carriers have concluded that we still stand strong in comparison. This because of the layer that we ad on top of the generic OS,” he notes.
The Xperia X10 comes to the market with Sony Ericsson's own software solution thrown over the Android operating system it packs inside, a solution that includes the Sony Ericsson Timescape and Mediascape, and which is aimed at enhancing the user experience the device can deliver. However, the functionality of the phone is enhanced by newer flavors of Android too, and the Xperia X10 will certainly appeal even more to users as soon as a new version of the OS is delivered to it.