Every phone in Sony Ericsson’s 2011 “Xperia” line will be getting an update to Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich.
“We are working on merging our current Xperia experience with the new features in Android 4.0,” the company wrote in a statement on its website.
The Xperia brand covers such models as the Xperia Arc, Xperia Pro, Xperia Mini, and the ambitious but ultimately commercially unsuccessful Xperia Play gaming phone.
Also slated for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade is the Walkman-branded phone “Live with Walkman.”
This makes Sony Ericsson one of the most ambitious manufacturers so far when it comes to Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade plans. Other companies like HTC and Motorola have been slow to announced their plans, worried that they won’t be able to deliver if they make too many promises.
Sony Ericsson, soon to lose the “Ericsson” name after Sony announced it was buying out its long-time mobile partner, was initially tepid in its reception to Android. But as the company began to veer lower and lower in the red, it wildly shifted its strategy to an all-Android business model, and has been on the rise ever since.
With Sony steering the ship from now on, there is nowhere to go but up. Expect to see many more Playstation-branded phones in the months and years ahead, as Sony’s new mobile unit is likely to compete head-to-head with Microsoft in a gaming environment that is increasingly bleeding outside of the traditional console realm.
