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Sony open to Windows Phone devices, but has no plans at the moment
Sony has been pretty busy as far as Android is concerned, but do they have any plans to launch Windows Phone devices of their own? After all, we’ve seen alleged leaks that show Sony phones running Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, so why not, right? Well according to the folks at PhoneArena who conducted an interview with Stephen Sneeden, Sony’s Product Marketing Manager for the Xperia line, it seems that Sony is open to the idea of Windows Phone devices in the future, although at the moment it does not appear that they have any plans to start pursuing that agenda. It looks like Sony is not in the mood to take any chances especially when they’re still struggling to make a profit as far as Android devices are concerned, but hopefully things will start to pick up with Nokia’s Lumia efforts and with Windows Phone 8 in the future, but for now it looks like Sony will be out of the picture.
If you are rocking to the following devices from Sony – the Xperia Z3+, Xperia Z4 Tablet, Xperia C4, Xperia C5 Ultra, Xperia M4 Aqua, and Xperia M5, then perhaps it is time to sit up and take notice. It seems that support pages for all of these six devices have listed down Android 6.0 Marshmallow as the next version of the OS which will be arriving, never mind the fact that all of them happen to run on Android 5.0 Lollipop at the moment.
If true and all turns out according to plan, then it would mean that Sony would have given the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update a miss, diving straight into development for Android 6.0 Marshmallow which has already been released. Still, it might take some time, so to see Android 6.0 Marshmallow arrive some time this year on the listed devices would most probably happen next year rather than in 2015.
Sony has decided that it is time for three of their older smartphones, the Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact, and Xperia Z Ultra to pick up the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update at long last, following in the footsteps of the likes of the Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, and Xperia Tablet Z in the previous week.
What makes it all the more interesting is the fact that Sony has continued to extend support to these handsets despite them being relatively aged in the fast paced smartphone market. When you apply the update to all three handsets, they will all end up with the build number 14.6.A.0.368, and at the moment, this update will be made live in selected regions, although it is tipped to spread across to the rest of the world in the coming days and weeks.
Do expect to see the infamous Stagefright vulnerability plugged with this update, which is a good thing, among many other improvements and capabilities.
The Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual has been around for some time already, and it is no spring chicken in the big scheme of things where smartphones are concerned. Having said that, it is nice to see that the device itself is on the receiving end of the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update, where it will see the version number bumped up to 19.4.A.0.182 upon installation.
Do bear in mind that the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual happens to sport enough space to stash away dual SIM cards, and this is a slightly modified version of the Xperia T2 Ultra. With Android 5.1.1 Lollipop arriving on the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual, this can only mean that the single SIM model should be able to get the very same update in due time, although nothing official has been revealed just yet. I guess we will just have to sit tight and see.