Sony Ericsson's CEO thinks Android is better than WP7
Following an interview with President and CEO of Sony Ericsson, Bert Nordberg, the Wall Street Journal had some interesting points to mill over regarding Sony Ericsson in the US, the iPhone, Windows Phone, Android and Motorola.
Whilst talking about Sony Ericsson"s decision to make Android their sole mobile platform, Mr Nordberg put that it was "the best choice we could have made" due to the nature of the OS"s impressive growth in such a short time. He also admitted that they (Sony Ericsson) "should have taken the iPhone more seriously when it arrived in 2007". A fair point, but one that might well have been the actual catalyst that has made Sony Ericsson what we see today.
Nordberg said he sees Sony Ericsson eventually shedding its feature phones altogether, in order to become a smartphone-only company, a feat that he reckons will take place sooner than you might think. He expects this shift to be achieved by the mid-point of next year, (bearing in mind smartphones already account for 70% of Sony Ericsson"s sales).
When asked as to why Sony Ericsson hadn"t yet become the largest manufacturer of Android devices worldwide, he explained that they, as a company, underestimated the speed at which the Android platform could have penetrated the US, a market were he also agreed SE are still "a very tiny player". For the record, Sony Ericsson make up for an estimated 11% of the total Android market.
He spoke of why Sony Ericsson could have been the ones to buy Motorola Mobility, instead of Google, explaining that:
"Well sure, but before you go shopping you have to become rich and a deal between us would have been extremely complicated, with us being a private company with two large owners and them being a listed US company."
To finish the conversation off, Bert also discussed whether Sony Ericsson would ever consider switching from Android to Windows Phone as a main platform. His response was honest to say the least, but in business; transparency is the best policy.
“At this point I wouldn’t feel comfortable investing in a platform that isn’t as good as the one that we currently use. Therefore we have remained with Android, but I am quite curious about Windows Phone.”
That"s quite clearly a "thanks, but no thanks" statement but at the same time, doesn"t exclude the company from switching to another major platform, if such a platform can fit their criteria down the line.
