According to a recent interview with Reuters, Sony Ericsson CEO Hideki Komiyama confessed that it would be “some time” before Android makes its way onto a production handset. Despite having been shot down already this past December, rumors that a Sony Ericsson phone running Google’s OS might be released as early as this Summer were still buzzing around the outskirts of the Internet. Once again however, it looks like those rumors can be put to bed with Komiyama’s admission that, “It 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.”
We can’t say this is a bad move of course, as the company certainly has bigger fish to fry at the moment. To say SE is struggling right now is a bit of an understatement and pumping out an Android phone or two might not be the best use of the company’s resources. Looking toward the future, Komiyama sees Android “as one of the important operating systems, there is no doubt,” but the company is likely wise to delay moving in that direction. There is still plenty of buzz surrounding Android of course, but it is slowly subsiding even as we near the release of HTC’s second Android-powered handset. Android is still too young to be widely adopted and as Sony Ericsson prepares to cut 20 percent of its workforce this year, concentrating elsewhere for the time being is probably the way to go.
