Sony Ericsson no longer exists. Sony officially purchased Ericsson’s share of the joint venture last month and the company has big plans to make mobile one of their core businesses, at least that’s what Kazuo Hirai says (pictured above, right). So what operating system will the company bet their future on? Google’s Android is the talk of the town, but it’s not really making anyone any significant amount of money, save for Samsung, who also sells components to everyone else making Android phones. There’s always Windows Phone … but that operating system has yet to prove itself, and rumor has it that the next major version, codenamed Apollo, is going to be a complete transformation of Windows Phone as we know it today. Here’s an idea, how about building something in-house? That’s exactly what Sony is considering according to Japanese site AV Watch, who says Hirai, Sony’s new CEO effective on April 1st, told reporters in a question and answer session that Sony has already developed an operating system for the PlayStation Vita. Said OS would be perfect to build mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, but that doesn’t mean Sony has officially signed off on a Vita based handset yet.
Anyone who knows anything about Sony knows that their hardware is gorgeous, but their software leaves a lot to be desired. No one at the IntoMobile offices has played with a Vita, but we all have plenty of experience with a PlayStation 3. The cross bar UI is functional, minimalistic even, so it’s a good start. This author remembers how convoluted the user interfaces of the Sony CLIÉ personal digital assistants used to be. Maybe that was just a limitation of the small screens, but still, do you think Sony has the resources to create a mobile OS worthy enough to compete with the likes of iOS and Android?