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Sony might not be playing the Android game that much longer. Sony has a good place in the Android ecosystem, but there is no doubt that they could be doing better. A company of the likes of Sony is surely not happy to see a €247 million loss in 2011, despite the fact that sales increased by 65% year-on-year.
Sony’s upcoming President and CEO Kazuo Hirai is hinting at plans to expand Vita OS, with possibilities of porting it to smartphones and tablets. Undoubtedly, this company is a gaming monster, and Vita OS could become a great operating system for hard-core gamers. This is why Sony is considering the idea – building their own platform might could completely change the game, and its bank accounts.
The recent acquisition of Ericsson’s mobile department will definitely bring some changes. And as sad as it would be to see them stepping out of our world, competition is a great thing.
After testing out the PS Vita, at CES, I found that the device is incredibly smooth and responsive. And while the OS is nowhere close to being as functional as Android, it has potential. Sony would need to work very hard on releasing a plethora of applications and services, though.
“If you’re asking if we’ve made it in a way that’s expandable, so that it’s possible to apply to smartphones and tablets on top of achieving the high responsiveness we need for gaming devices — it is possible. That doesn’t mean that we’re applying it to smartphones and tablets at this point in time, but it’s been designed with expandability in mind.”
-Yoshio Matsumoto, Senior Vice President
As Matsumoto mentions, this might not be happening anytime soon. Sony is not discarding the possibility, though. Whether this would be a change for the good, or for the bad, we do not know. The PS Vita is not getting the success we were expecting. But improvements can always turn the tables around.
What do you guys say? Would this be a smart move from Sony?
great idea sony, this should be sick.
sickity sick sick yo like fo real? Not really. It’s a horrible idea.
No, just NO. This is a great idea for Sony.
The OS is not Sony’s problem. They haven’t made a great portable product in 20-30 years, that is a breakout and distinguishable from the many others out there. I used to be Sony guy but quit buying their products back around 1999 when I started to take note that other companies were out-innovating them.
the Os is Sony’s problem imagine playing PS4 games on a PC/Laptop and playing Vita games on Smartphones/Tablets, instead they have to have no control over anything and making Google/Android having power over everything what product could they make that is a game changer??? a PS4 PC o no apparently not because then they would have to create their own OS
Why switch to a different platform when there won’t be nearly as many apps and existing content available? This sounds like a webOS kind of mistake.
the “webOS kind of mistake” is what Sony does best. haven’t you seen this before?
look at almost every game they’ve ever ruined: it’s all be the ones with the most potential:
planetside
final fantasy online (original and the new one)
everquest.
infantry
that awesome 3d tank game back in the day
same company failed at all of the above. Only reason they didnt’ fail as much with EQ is because they took much longer to screw it up.
I’m especially bitter that they destroyed infantry by making it P2P, it had a thriving community before they bought it, it was still good after they bought it and ruined 2 years later. It was the best game at the time no matter what you think of the graphics, just the versatily of the game to create loads of game types as different as gravball and cope with hundreds of players in the same map with very good network code in the dialup days. Man do I miss those days. I’m gonna see if anybody is still on it when I get home.
they already have the PS store which has 100’s of games, movies and Tv shows
Yeah, it isn’t the OS that’s killing Sony, it’s Sony killing Sony. Er, how many carriers carry their phones here in the US?!? If they made an effort to get more stuff on more carriers, they might go somewhere. If they instead go with a proprietary OS, I think they’ll end up on life support.
Any new OS and even old must have, at least an ACL, Android Compatibility Layer, in order to install Android Apps and enjoy the android Market.
But some brands will make exclusive apps as games – for Nvidia Tegra – or for Sony PS devices, or perhaps future Nintendo portable smartphones / portable gaming devices.
And Linux desktop must have an ACL soon, in order to make Android Games and other apps part of the desktop ecosystem.
Nintendo already said that they’re not getting in the SmartPhone game. Sorry. I’d get one of those in a heart beat.
It is however more likely that they do the Samsung way and offer both systems.
Sony will not be able to sell any phones without Android their OS has no infrastructure as in apps and community support even a software giant like Microsoft is struggling and MS has many loyal software developers Sony doesn’t.
I could see this for a “playstation” phone or tablet but not their main phone division. That’s just not smart.
no user is going to buy someone running a 3rd OS, regardless of the company who is backing it. Look what happened with HP. Build Android devices and if they want to make them run smoother, how about strapping some developers onto the Google team and helping them out. I think Android needs to be a bit more collaborative among the community (bringing proper android devs and rom devs together). If they combined forces and put their petty egos aside, Android 5 could crush iOS completely. I mean, seriously completely. End of story completely.
Sony will not be able to break through a single party (Sony) supported new mobile OS.
Even WP has a better chance of succeeding.
The only chance Vita would have as a mobile OS was if Sony 3rd party ported TOP 100 most used mobile apps to Vita by itsel (Skype, Opera, etc. etc).
Maybe then, if priced right and included with best of Sony cam modules and screens, it would have a fighting chance.
But Sony seriously needs to re-engineer their mobile product design pipeline first. They are consistently 6-12 months behind of Apple and Samsung.
Leaving Android 4 a smoother and more responsive o s? SHOCKING
I won’t call it until I see the Vita OS. It might amaze me, though I also won’t hold my breath.
Or, you know, maybe stop putting out forgettable Android products in a highly competitive tablet and smartphone market. I still can’t figure out why tech blogs and reviewers are so enamored by the Sony Tablet S. I’ve held it in stores and my reaction is the same every time: “Yup, that’s a whole lot of plastic”.
Sony fails at gaming for smart phones because of using inferior Qualcomm crap. If they got a hold of the PowerVR 543mp4+ ARM A9 or even a Tegra 3, they’d have a gaming powerhouse, and I’d be on board for a Sony phone.
The problem why sony is not successful in android business is because of their hardware is behind the competition not because of android, plus they are always late in releasing them especially in the us!
“After testing out the PS Vita, at CES, I found that the device is incredibly smooth and responsive.”
That’s because it doesn’t do anything.
the same for IOS
+ the vita can go between games without hassle and 1 vita game is much more than 1 widget
Seriously? Android wave is huge and big enough for everyone. Just ride it and don’t be snob as usual, Sony.
and pay $30 bucks to Microsoft and have many restrictions like having to repurchase Playstation games (Xperia Play), and having no control over updates? no just no
Sony needs to go ahead and release the Android-based Walkman Z in the states!
Sigh…and again, the Sony hate begins. I’m no fanboy, but it’s obvious that people just love to hate on every little move of Sony’s, as if all they do is wrong.
Sony steal “VITA OS” name from Samsung… :-|
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77854923
http://www.unwiredview.com/2010/01/21/samsung-files-for-vita-os-trademark-another-mobile-os/
http://www.trademarkia.com/samsung-vita-os-77854923.html
It would be commercial suicide. I think they’ll go for it!
LMAO
they don’t have to ditch android right away, unless if this would be a complete success