Sony Ericsson CTO Jan Uddenfeldt discusses LTE, Android updates, tabs, CDMA Xperia PLAY and WP

Sony Ericsson CTO Jan Uddenfeldt officially confirmed that LTE devices manufactured by the Swedish-Japanese joint-venture are coming "pretty soon". Moreover, he said that the company is committed to the cause its phones to get the latest Android updates very soon after the updates' release, and that it would focus more on the American market.

Jan Uddenfeldt didn't elaborate when we are to see the first Sony Ericsson LTE devices, but said "we are advanced in our product development", pointing to the fact Ericsson joined forces with Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson to demonstrate TD-LTE voice and video services for China Mobile at MWC.

Also, the Sony Ericsson CTO reiterated that the company has learned from its past mistakes and plans to update its phones with the latest Android flavour very soon after the Android version in question is released. The notion that Sony Ericsson wants its phones to be up-to-date with the latest green robot offerings is confirmed by the fact all of its newly announced phones - the Xperia PLAY, the Xperia arc, the Xperia neo and the Xperia pro - are to launch with Gingerbread out of the box. In Jan Uddenfeldt's own words:

"A year ago, the awareness of the importance of being on the latest Android release wasn't in the company."

Although the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is the first CDMA Sony Ericsson handset (its presumed launch date is sometime in May for Verizon) that will see a release in the States, this is not the company's first ever CDMA phone as it has a long history of cooperation with the Japanese CDMA carrier KDDI.

It's worth noting that there is no exclusive deal for the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY between the manufacturer and Verizon, so we may expect other US carriers to join the PLAY party.

Also, Sony Ericsson is eager to focus more on the American market, as the company now recognizes it as the leading smartphone market in the world and plans to expand its research and development facilities in the Silicon Valley. To confirm these words with actions, it's announced that Rikko Sakaguchi, Sony Ericsson's chief creative officer, is to move to the States.

Finally, Jan Uddenfeldt said that the company will release an Android-powered tablet in the future, but additional info on this subject is not available. He also claimed that although the manufacturer hasn't shut the WP door, it doesn't plan to release any devices for the platform in the foreseeable future:

"We haven't said 'no' to Windows. On the other hand, we have not released any new Windows products for the last nine months or 12 months. It's still a possibility that we could, but we don't see any real reason for it because Android is growing so dramatically, and it has an attractiveness when it comes to the user-friendliness and market growth, and the carriers are loving it. But we don't close our eyes on other things."

Seems like Sony Ericsson means business again, eh? Are you excited from the prospect the joint-venture to go back to its old self, i.e. to once again become a cutting edge phone manufacturer?

source: Fierce Wireless