Bonum Certa Men Certa

Windows Mobile Suffers Another Defeat Amid Linux Triumphs



Summary: Another sign that Sony Ericsson may shift more focus to GNU and Linux after Xperia X2 launch gets delayed, then downscaled

T

WO weeks ago we wrote about Windows Mobile (version 7) being delayed along with Xperia X2. Well, it turns out that Xperia X2 will altogether be dropped from the UK market, symboling the continued collapse of Windows Mobile (market share down about 30% in just one year).

From The Inquirer:

AFTER AN UNDERSTATED launch event back in November, it seemed that the high-end Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 phone was due to land in the UK well in time for Christmas.

At the event the company admitted that it was still polishing the code and streamlining the Panels interface introduced by its predecessor the X1, but that we were assured that review units would be sent out within the week, running the release version of the Windows Mobile 6.5 overlay.


As we showed in December, Sony Ericsson is gradually exploring Linux and Free software. Maybe it is having second thoughts about Windows. References that we add below may help understanding of this situation (from 2008-2009, more recent items listed first). ______ [1] Android phone sports 8.1-megapixel camera

Sony Ericsson announced its first Android phone, along with a "UX" user interface targeting social networking. The Xperia X10 offers from 8 to 16GB of flash storage, a four-inch touchscreen, and an 8.1-megapixel camera with face recognition and geo-tagging, plus the usual 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS features.


[2] Sony Ericsson announces its first Android handset: the XPERIA X10

Available in "Luster White" or "Sensuous Black", the 119mm x 63mm x 13mm device weighs 135g and features a 4in, 480 x 854 capacitive touchscreen display.


[3] Sony Ericsson's first Android phone highlights Microsoft's shortcomings

"Microsoft is being squeezed from one end by this open source approach from the likes of Android, Symbian open source, Maemo and LiMo, and squeezed from the other by RIM and Apple, which offer closed environments that users are very happy with," she said.


[4] Sony Ericsson preparing netbook launch?

Sony Ericsson appears set to launch a netbook. Sorry, smartbook - the phone firm's micro laptop seems likely to be as much phone as portable PC.


[5] Sony Ericsson Xperia drops Windows for Android

An Android-based version of Sony Ericsson's first Windows Mobile smartphone, the Xperia, has appeared online, prompting speculation that an official unveiling could be just around the corner.


[6] Check Out Sony Ericsson's Android UI

Word leaked over the weekend about Sony Ericsson's first Android-powered smartphone and it looked like a winner. Well, today we've learned that the company will be layering on its own custom user interface on top of the Linux-based OS, and it also looks pretty good.

To recap, the smartphone is code-named "Rachael" and it is expected to be the next generation in the company's Xperia line. Reports say it will run on Qualcomm's zippy 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, and it will have 3D graphics, a whopping 8-megapixel camera, and it will be capable of 7.2 Mbps downlink speeds.


[7] Sony Ericsson Using Drupal

Sony Ericsson's first Drupal web site was officially launched yesterday at the JavaOne conference. The site, called Sony Ericsson Labs, is a community website to shares application concepts with everyone who is interested in mobile applications and where new ideas can begin to take shape.


[8] Sony Ericsson Inches Closer To Android Phone

Ever since Sony Ericsson joined the Open Handset Alliance, Android fans have been wondering when the company would release a smartphone with the Google-backed operating system. An executive gave some more details Friday indicating fans may not have to wait too much longer.


[9] Sony Ericsson to make Android phone

Rikko Sakaguchi, Corporate VP at Sony Ericsson, said it’s the company’s aim to “develop a handset based on the Android platform”, according to his OHA membership statement.


[10] (Video) Ubuntu Linux Running On Sony Ericsson P990i

Apparently "Wizolabo" managed to get a copy of Ubuntu Linux running on the Sony Ericsson P990i, which features a 240 x 320 TFT touchscreen display, 2.0-megapixel camera, 64MB RAM, 128MB Flash memory, 60MB built-in memory, 802.11b Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a music player, and USB 2.0 connectivity. Video after the break.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Kazakhstan Doesn't Need GAFAM Datacentres (Spy Hubs)
Suffice to say, as far as we can gather nothing came out from the empty (false) promises of GAFAM's "data centers in Kazakhstan"
Christmas Music Project: Back to When Music Was Music
now Canonical (or Ubuntu) says we should make available tens of gigabytes of disk space
Browsing Techrights With a GUI and 10 Megabytes of RAM Per Tab
Some people say it's not possible in 2025, maybe in part because they depend on very bloated software
Gemini Links 25/12/2025: Hibernation and TV Detox
Links for the day
 
Manchester United Dumped Microsoft Because Qualcomm Sort of Did
The Windows PCs were an utter failure
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Supported by Unconventional Digital Bartering Communities
But no strings attached
Geminispace: 5,000 Capsules in 2026
There are 4.8k now
Gemini Links 26/12/2025: Careful What You Eat and "My Secret Santa"
Links for the day
The Indigenous Community Versus Corporate AstroTurt and 'Cancel Culture'
Good people will recognise exactly what's happening here and respond to it tactfully
Richard Stallman: Epstein is a Serial Rapist. Bill Epsteingate: Epstein is a Friend.
Supporting the FSF (or Richard Stallman) is supporting those who asserted Epstein had serially raped women
The Paradox of GAFAM: Saying You Protect Women, Appointing Abusers of Women to Run the Company
older articles
Censored by FreeBSD Core Team Secretary, Reinstated After Talking About it in Public
FreeBSD misfiring a CoC?
Links 26/12/2025: Chatbot Toys Terrorising Children, US Undeclared "War on Terror" Unilaterally Extends to Nigeria During Holidays
Links for the day
Links 26/12/2025: French Postal Services Under Russian Attack, U.S. Cheetos Accuse People Who Obstruct Information Warfare by Russia of "Censorship"
Links for the day
Debian's Daniel Kahn Gillmor is Wrong, Signal is No "Gold Standard" (It's Also Promoted by Proponents of Back Doors)
I'm not too sure why Debian or the ACLU would wish to associate with this
Next Year Will be the Year of Quantum, Just Like 2020, 2015, 2010, 2005 and So On
"Quantum" is the future
The Silent Power of Coercion Over Speech
The important thing is optics
So Simple That You Can Touch and Feel It
In light of recent experiences
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Under Attack by Cross-Network Spam Floods
So far we've been spared (our network has not been targeted at all) [...] Let's hope the spam won't discourage the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who still use IRC
An "AI-Infused" Windows
Microsoft Windows isn't becoming a worthless pile of garbage by accident
Microsoft Laid Off Over 30,000 People This Year, Coders Are "Too Expensive"
Go get some popcorn. Microsoft "slopware" is about to get real!
Critics Have Long Said Microsoft Produces "Slopware", Microsoft Wants to Prove Them Right
Slop instead of code is a step in the right direction?
The Top 8 Innovations of IBM in 2025
What innovations will come out from IBM in 2026?
And as the Year Turns...
The significance of new years isn't based on geology or astronomy or anything like that
Appliances Versus Computers
Replacing a computer inside an object of some kind or inside an appliance (which nowadays includes "modern" cars) isn't simple and isn't cheap
A Dark Side of Europe
They try hard to silence people who speak about these issues
Why People Love Techrights (and Also Loved "Boycott Novell")
I will continue to publish for many decades to come
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 25, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, December 25, 2025
A Tribute to Richard Stallman
It's about knowledge and sharing
Links 26/12/2025: Impermanence, Salt and Thermometer, Freetube
Links for the day
Canonical is Making the Cost of PCs Very High, Due to Unnecessary Ubuntu Bloat
They say the reason for the price surge is LLM hype/frenzy
Canonical's Ubuntu is Bloatware
How did Ubuntu get so fat?
The EPO is a Very Vicious Organisation You Neither Wish to Join Nor Stay in for "Too Long"
Consider what the EPO thinks of its own workers, the staff that actually does real work
2026 Will Hopefully Turn Out to be Slopless
we seem to be starting the post-Christmas period on the right footing
Links 25/12/2025: Mail Carriers in "a Murky Future", Dihydroxyacetone Man’s "Chip Embargo Against China Backfiring Spectacularly"
Links for the day
The Register MS: All I Want For Xmas is Microsoft
they actually put effort into it
How to Win Nobel Prize for Peace
Do you get to Heaven (or peace platitudes) by sleeping with 72 virgins?
The Right to Repair (Especially When Products Are So Poorly Made)
Many electrical appliances fail often/quick and are nearly impossible to repair
Links 25/12/2025: Ample Cover-up Found in Jeffrey Epstein Files; ChatGPT Causes Psychosis, Not a Good Use Case
Links for the day
Giving Money to Free Software
In life, people must make sacrifices to do what's right and just
The Register MS: Don't Use Linux
That really says a lot about The Register MS
EPO People Power - Part XV - EPO Cocainegate to Resume This Weekend
The next installment (number 16) will probably come out this weekend
Microsoft: XBox is Going "Online", "Cloud"...
XBox as a console is pretty much dead
The Year of the Bubble
We hope that in 2026 the marketing liars will find some new buzzwords to latch onto and quit calling everything "AI"
Mozilla Firefox is a GAFAM Browser With Slop, Move to a Free Software Web Browser
on mobile the options would be more limited
libera.chat Was Under Attack Last Night
Several months from now libera.chat turns 5
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Raises Over $300,000 Before Christmas
the FSF made it past $300,000
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 24, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Sounds Like Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' (Slop) Ran Out of Money to Borrow
Maybe in 2026 slop will be scarce enough that eventually, maybe by year's end, we'll manage to just ignore it.
In India, Staff Works on Christmas Eve, Becomes Unemployed (Last Day)
The company fires based on how "expensive" workers are more often than based on their productivity
Links 24/12/2025: US TACOs on "China Chip Tariffs Until 2027", Russian Snickers in U.K. Convenience Shops
Links for the day
Links 24/12/2025: Cheeto President "Accused of Rape in Jeffrey Epstein Files", Windows to be Replaced by Slop?
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/12/2025: Tea, Love During Pain, and Gaming This Year
Links for the day
GAFAM is a Bubble, Nothing is Free in This World
Nothing is free in the world
My New CD Player/Stereo Didn't Even Last a Year, My CD Player/Stereo From the Early 1990s Still Works
That helped reaffirm what I said in recent years about production/manufacturing standards of "modern" things
GitHub Isn't Free, Microsoft Subsidises It (Losses) to Entrap You Inside Proprietary Software, Now Come the Fees
GitHub was never free
XBox Console is Dead, "Microsoft is Rethinking What XBox is"
So XBox is now "cloud"
IBM SkillsBuild: Teaching Slop to People
What skills does that give? Making more slopfarms?
Maybe 2026 Will be the Last Year of António Campinos
Europe's patent system is run by thugs and it serves thugs
2025: The Year LLM Slop Rose to Prominence and Then Fell
the slop hype is bound to end
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 23, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Links 24/12/2025: Spotify Surveillance and Shadow Over Rule of Law in Hong Kong
Links for the day