Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 to get Gingerbread in Q2, Q3 this year
No - this isn"t one of our April Fools Day jokes. It"s the real deal, confirmed by the Sony Ericsson Product Blog and everything.
It seems that the guys over at Sony Ericsson haven"t forgotten about the godfather of their Android lineup, while promoting their second wave XPERIA smartphones. Actually Rikard Skogberg, the man who unveiled this juicy information to the world, says that experience with the XPERIA Arc and XPERIA Neo phones has helped Sony Ericsson"s engineers to start working on the Gingerbread update for the X10.
Skogberg wrote that the reason behind this upcoming update is that Sony Ericsson listens to its clients requests. Well, okay - we guess it"s technically true. Eclair and multi-touch did reach the X10, no matter how long people had to wait for them.
The update will start rolling-out in the summer time. It will be exclusive for non-carrier-branded devices so far. Locked carrier-dependent devices will just have to wait for new developments. Reportedly, some users may not get the Gingerbread update because of their carrier situation.
On the changes that Gingerbread would bring, Mr. Skogberg had this to say: "In short, we plan to bring similar software and functionality to Xperia X10 as we have in our new 2011 Xperia smartphones. Our ambition is to provide the majority of functionality of the Gingerbread platform, as well as the Sony Ericsson specific User Experience and features."
Also some current software functions will disappear. The camera app will get the standard Gingerbread UI, Mediascape will be replaced by the newest Sony Ericsson Android media widgets, included in the Arc, Neo and Play. The Sony Ericsson Backup and Restore app will be lost since Gingerbread doesn"t support it.
The new update won"t be an over-the-air affair. You"ll have to connect your X10 smartphone to a PC with the Sony Ericsson software to update.
Go over to the Sony Ericsson Product Blog (link below) to read the full information.