If you want to be sure to get the latest version of Android first when each update lands, you need to have a Nexus device in your pocket. Or at least that used to be the case. Is Google about to welcome Sony’s Xperia handsets into the family, too?
Google has just started a ‘bleeding edge’ experiment with the Sony Xperia S, to see if it can fully integrate the phone with its AOSP (Android Open Source Project) plans. What this means is that the Xperia S – alongside the rest of the Xperia family – could soon see itself treated exactly like Nexus-branded handsets.
That, in turn, would mean an update to the latest version of the stock Android OS from day one every time there’s a new iteration.
So why the Xperia S? Google’s AOSP king Jean-Baptiste Queru says that “it’s a powerful current GSM device, with an unlockable bootloader, from a manufacturer that has always been very friendly to AOSP.” Well, fair enough.
This could be the start of something pretty cool for Sony Xperia fans.
