Sony Ericsson Declined To Make Nexus One

Tweet

Taiwan’s HTC certainly is known for manufacturing great smartphones, but they weren’t Google’s first choice for being the manufacturers behind their Nexus One superphone. Sony Ericsson’s CEO told Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan that Google approached them about designing and manufacturing the Nexus One and they declined.

Sony Ericsson has a long history in producing smartphones and has their own production facilities in China, which Google does not, but SE passed on the deal, according to SE CEO Bert Nordberg. Nordberg cited that brand recognition was more important for Sony Ericsson than the opportunity to produce a product with Google

It’s worth noting that the actual Nexus One is marketed as “a Google phone”. Google’s website that sells the handset doesn’t mention HTC anywhere. Nordberg said that “Sony Ericsson will only produce phones under its own brand and not be subcontracted to others.”

Despite the non-deal between Sony Ericsson and Google. Nordberg says that relations between the two companies remains good. As we reported, Sony Ericsson has Android phones coming out soon, and Nordberg told Sydsvenskan that SE was “betting big on Android.” Nordberg added that before being appointed CEO of Sony Ericsson, he was head of Ericsson’s operations in Silicon Valley where he personally met Google CEO Eric Schmidt on a number of occasions.

Nordberg said that Sony Ericsson was also impressed with Windows Phone 7, and that the new mobile OS from Microsoft will be appearing on Sony Ericsson phones in the future. In recent years, Windows Mobile 6 has been the popular OS for Sony Ericsson handsets, but Nordberg told Sydsvenskan that “We will never bet on just one operating system, because we do not know where the market is going.“