Google-backed AOSP support program for Sony Xperia S kicked off

• Raveesh Bhalla
• 12 years ago

This might be the most interesting bit of news I’ve ever covered at Phandroid: Google’s Jean-Baptiste Queru made a little announcement about an experiment that would see the Sony Xperia S receive direct software support through the AOSP, in a manner similar to the Nexus devices and the Motorola Xoom. Queru explained the choice of device as being a form of “thank you” to Sony for their relative openness with the developer community.

“It’s a powerful current GSM device, with an unlockable bootloader, from a manufacturer that has always been very friendly to AOSP.”

What really piques my interest about the experiment is

(a) Is this an early indicator for a possible Sony-branded Nexus device itself? Queru’s praise could definitely count in their favour, and also the community-driven AOSP codebase for the Xperia S could form the foundation for the device. It’s a very thin argument, but it’s the first thing that struck me.

(b) If this project were to be a success, would manufacturers be interested in offering users with the choice of their firmware, with updates coming through them, or AOSP ROMs with updates provided through Google?

This definitely has the potential to go on to become a huge deal later on, the biggest step taken against the slow-update problem that plagues the platform.

[The Verge]