Disqus
Taiwan-based Commercial Times reported that HTC has received ODM orders to make Windows Mobile smartphones for Sony Ericsson. The news goes on, suggesting that the first such devices will hit the market in the second half of 2008… Let’s see what we can pull out from this, shall we.
First, you should know Sony Ericsson now owns UIQ Technology, the developer of the UIQ software platform that works on top of Symbian OS and which is used in the smartphones manufactured by the Swedish-Japanese company. Why would they want to go against their relatively recent acquisition? To mimic Motorola and make phones for virtually all platforms? Nah…
On the other hand, with this kind of move Sony Ericsson could pretty quickly release a number of enterprise friendly devices and get that piece of the market. At the moment, Sony Ericsson has a single business-centric smartphone, P1i, and “now so last year” P990i and M600i. Apparently, the M600i’s successor is coming, but that’s still just two devices. By partnering with HTC, Sony Ericsson could easily release 3-5 new business-centric devices with new form factors HTC is using (i.e. slide-out keyboard). Yeah, they will run the Windows Mobile, but I guess enterprises love that.
The conclusion – while I do see a reason for Sony Ericsson to go this route, I highly doubt they’ll do it. Or that’s just me wishing they’ll release more Symbian smartphones soon enough. What do you think?
[Via: the::unwired]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
