Sony Ericsson: No Tablet Plans, Unlikely to Adopt Windows Phone 7 At This Time

While Sony Ericsson France CEO Pierre Perron says that the company is still in talks with Microsoft regarding the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, adoption of the platform may be unlikely at this time. Microsoft, which had issued strict design guidelines and recommendations, had barred carriers and manufacturers like Sony Ericsson from fully customizing the famous Live Tile homescreens known as the Metro UI with their own user interface (like HTC Sense) and this may be the culprit behind Sony Ericsson’s reluctance to adopt Windows Phone 7 in its current state. While carriers and manufacturers can add their own Live Tile box to the home screen, they can’t re-write the homescreen UI to offer a custom look, feel, and experience. According to Perron, Android offers this flexibility and the company is concerned that the standardized experience on Windows Phone 7 may commoditize their hardware: “With Windows 7 we run the risk of standardising our smartphones. We would be obliged to compete only on design on price, which we want to avoid.” Perron’s comments perhaps suggest that the leaked renderings of the XPERIA X7 tablets seen previously are fakes.The company told Telecom Paper that it also has no plans to launch a tablet, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change down the road.

Casey Pham
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android, metro ui, Sony Ericsson, Tablet, Windows Phone 7