For those that do not know, the Sony Xperia brand was first built off the Windows Mobile platform. The Xperia X1 was released in October 2008 on Windows Mobile 6.1, whilst the Xperia X2 launched around a year later with Windows Mobile 6.5. Since then all Xperia handsets apart from one (Xperia Pureness) have been running on the Android platform. However, we think that with the introduction of Windows Phone 8, Sony Mobile should now seriously consider adopting the platform.
Here at Xperia Blog, with have been covering the Xperia Android journey since day one and we love the platform. Indeed, in a few short hours we expect to hear details about the latest Android iteration (Jelly Bean) from Google I/O. That does not mean we would not be open to seeing any other operating system on an Xperia device.
Windows Phone 8 has introduced a number of features that perhaps Android users are already accustomed to (multi-core processor support, 720p displays, microSD memory card support and NFC). It also brings some additional features such as the Internet Explorer 10 browser, digital Wallet, Nokia Maps (with offline storage) and around 100,000 apps in the Windows Marketplace.
Of course, there is nothing here that Android doesn’t have. Instead of IE8, ICS users have Chrome, Android already has Google Wallet and Google recently announced that offline maps will soon be a feature of Google Maps. Lastly, the number of apps in the Google Play Store vastly outnumber those in the Windows Marketplace.
However, the Windows Phone experience is different to Android. The UI is much easier to use for someone new to smartphones in our experience. We also like how the live tiles on the home screen work (similar to Android widgets). We know that Sony has tested Windows Phone on prototypes in the past but we think the platform has now matured to a point where Sony should seriously consider releasing a handset to test the waters. After all, given the sheer number of models released in 2012 so far, it surely shouldn’t be a logistical problem.
What is your view? Would you like to see Sony release a Windows Phone 8 handset or are you so wedded to Android that the thought is sacrilegious? We’d love to read your thoughts on this below.
