News · 25 Mar 2011 · MTW Editorial Team
Still wondering if Sony Ericsson is really serious about being a big player in the Android ecosytem? Well, today’s announcement that the Xperia X10 will get a new lease of life this summer via an Android 2.3 Gingerbread update further proves that the company is firmly behind Google mobile OS and Windows Phone 7 is definitely something of the past for the company. As you probably already know, SE isn’t known for its execution or product support but things seem to be moving in the right direction ever since the announcement of the PlayStation Suite and certified games system and the company’s new roaster of Android devices announced at MWC last which includes the Xperia Play gaming phone (hands on video here) and sleek looking Xperia Arc (my hands on video here).
We plan to bring an upgrade to Android Gingerbread for the XperiaTM X10 to generic trade kits end Q2 / early Q3 this year. We have heard your requests all along but until today have not been able to confirm this. The great work on our 2011 products XperiaTM PLAY, XperiaTM arc and XperiaTM neo actually has enabled us to start the work in a special project bringing Gingerbread to the XperiaTM X10.
Will any functionality from the previous software version disappear by doing this upgrade?
Yes – the work is still ongoing so details will be communicated closer to launch but these are the current expected limitations:
•The current plan is that the XperiaTM X10 will get the Android standard Camera user interface and therefore features like e.g. face recognition, smile shutter etc will be lost.
•Moxier is replaced by the gingerbread native EAS functionality.
•Mediascape is being replaced by the media experience widgets and music player included in our new 2011 products.
•DRM keys for protected content on your phone will be lost in the upgrade process.
•The Sony Ericsson Backup and Restore client is not supported in the Gingerbread version and will therefore be lost.
•Support for bi-directional languages will be reduced compared to the latest version of the 2.1 version of the XperiaTM X10.
Source: Sony Ericsson
Buyer action
Where to buy or check next
Use this as the final check before ordering a phone, changing network or trusting a headline monthly price.
