A spokesperson for Sony Ericsson says that the company has no plans to build new Symbian-based smartphones. Much like Motorola, which restored its competitiveness by dropping Symbian and its own in-house Linux effort in favor of Android in 2008, Sony Ericsson appears to be committed to Google's mobile operating system.

This reflects the general trend of declining interest in Symbian among handset makers. The last major remaining ally of the Symbian platform in the smartphone market is Nokia, which recently launched new Symbian^3 products and intends to use the platform on budget midrange handsets as it transitions to Linux-based MeeGo for high-end smartphones. Sony Ericsson will remain a member of the Symbian Foundation, an organization that was founded to facilitate vendor-neutral collaboration around the platform. It's possible that Sony Ericsson could eventually start using Symbian again if the foundation succeeds in its efforts to modernize the platform.

As we explained in our recent coverage of Symbian^3 from NokiaWorld, the new version of the operating system ameliorates some of its legacy technical limitations by improving performance and multitasking, but doesn't offer a truly competitive user experience compared to Android and Apple's iOS. As usability and look and feel become more important to consumers, the flexibility of Android and its support for a richer graphical experience will continue driving its adoption among handset makers.

Sony Ericsson created an elaborate and visually distinctive user interface shell to differentiate its Android-based Xperia X10 from other competing smartphones. Although the device offers a moderately impressive user experience, it ships with an extremely outdated version of Android and hasn't been updated yet. It's expected to get a bump to Android 2.1 later this year, but it's not entirely clear yet when it will get Android 2.2.

Building a unique Android experience obviously comes with some trade-offs and poses challenges for keeping the phone up-to-date. These issues have hindered sales and prevented the product from achieving the popularity enjoyed by competing Android handsets from Motorola and HTC. Sony Ericsson needs to up its game if it wants to move ahead in the smartphone market. In a statement during the grand opening of the new Sony Ericsson headquarters, CEO Bert Nordberg hinted that we might see some "surprises" emerge over the next few months. This has prompted some speculation that Sony Ericsson is preparing to deliver a rumored Playstation-branded gaming smartphone powered by Android.

Such a product could help boost Android's profile among game developers and attract some bigger titles. It would also help Sony Ericsson deliver something unique that would stand apart from the growing number of Android handsets that are being brought to market by various handset makers.

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