Sony Ericsson abandons Symbian in favour of Android

Sony Ericsson have announced they won’t be using Symbian as an OS for their smartphones in the near future, opting for Google’s Android platform instead.

Aldo Liguori, a spokesperson for Sony Ericsson, confirmed the news in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, stating: “We have no plans for the time being to develop any new products to the Symbian Foundation standard or operating system.”

He went on to state that they plan to drop the OS developed by their Finnish rival Nokia, to focus on developing smartphones which operate using Google’s Android platform. This is likely to be due to the platform’s recent shift in popularity, with Android eating away at Symbian’s current 41% market share.

This will be a blow for the Nokia-owned OS, with the likes of Motorola and Samsung also cutting back on their use of Symbian.

This news means that the Vivaz and the Vivaz Pro will be the last of Sony Ericsson’s phones to support the OS, although it is currently unknown as to whether the manufacturer will be using Symbian in the future.

[Source: ITPro]