Good enough will have to do
It looks like Sony Ericsson is hoping to start 2011 with a clean smartphone slate, having annoyed many of its customers with its Android update schedule in 2010.
The Xperia arc, launched today, will arrive with shiny, new Android 2.3 - Gingerbread - later this year, but the previous Xperia generation will never reach those heady heights it seems.
Android Community first reported that the X10 family of phones was not going to advance beyond Android 2.1 earlier today. The statement we subsequently got from SE seems to confirm that this applies to all of its Android phones launched before this year, including the X8. Here's the official line:
"We believe that with the current hardware platform an overhaul of the underlying core OS wouldn't drastically improve the user experience. Android OS 2.1 coupled with Sony Ericsson's proprietary upgrades and superior entertainment hardware (8.1 mp camera and HD video recording) delivers a user experience that is on par with, and in many cases better than, a vanilla installation of Android 2.2."
This does smack of spin a tad. Not only are there a lot of cool things available only in Android 2.2 and beyond - such as Flash support and tethering - but SE has just got through saying how great its Android 2.3 phone will be. Also, who says it has to use a vanilla installation? This statement seems to confirm what has been clear for a while: SE need to invest more in software development.
Having said all that, however, this seems like a reasonable strategic move. Rather than continue to stretch its development resources on updating older phones, who's users have already grown accustomed to using older versions of Android, SE is going to focus on getting it right from now on.
