Pierre Perron, Head of Sony Mobile Europe has talked to TechRadar about company’s plan to expand their business from a single platform (i.e Android). There have been rumors that Sony is planning a comeback in the Windows Phone space for a while now, and this statement gives a a similar sound to the one made by Perron in 2012, it was then denied by CEO Kunimasa Suzuki.
“We are continuing our discussions with other partners, including Microsoft, as part of our partnership with this company on the broader Sony spectrum. Working with Microsoft is an interesting proposition for us in the PC environment, and we continue our engagement with them. We are exploring this as part of our discussion in mobile space too. One thing is using the platform itself, and another is ‘what can we deliver on top of it ?” – Pierre Perron
Sony had a dig into the Windows Phone with the Xperia X1 back in 2008 but the successor Xperia X2 was announced and never made available. We know currently Sony is doing well with their Xperia’s powered by Google’s Android and this new move might affect that, as production will be stressed and resources will be shared. Perron is considering the move to Windows Phone as a safety measure in changing market, he made the following statement on this subject.
“We don’t want to be a single OS manufacturer, I don’t think it’s a viable position in the long term, We enjoy very much a good collaboration with Google, we’ve been working with them for a long time and have a level of maturity with that discussion, that’s good. But at the same time, Google has a relationship with direct competitors.”
There is still no time frame for Sony’s Windows Phone 8 to fit in and considering the plans to be still in discussion phase, we may be very far from seeing one in action. Stay tuned for more updates and feel free to share your views in the comments section below.