Sony to Extend its AOSP Program to Other Devices

Sony will be offering its users the possibility to use AOSP ROMs as an alternative to the currently offered, skinned firmware. This is the result of agreement made with FreeXperia group associated with both XDA and the CyanogenMod team, which took place a few years ago. One of the leaders of the project, XDA Senior Recognized Developer jerpelea, is heading this operation and was hired by Sony to lead the AOSP program.

AOSP support isn’t something new to Sony. Currently this Japanese OEM supports five devices—mainly flagship devices, but also the Xperia L, which is a popular mid-range device. Sony and Alin Jerpelea are planning to extend the program to other devices, which are yet to be released. Jerpelea expressed his pride in FXPs cooperation with developers from all around the world. Sony is offering its source code (device tree and kernel with a proper changelog) as a reference to other developers working on custom ROMs popular here at XDA.

Jerpelea emphasized the importance of the open source in the world of Android. Such an approach towards developers can bring only good things. FXP is a great example, since their developers made lots of contributions into the AOSP tree. Sony is willing to train more developers by releasing its source code and offering them resources to learn. One of Jerpelea’s responsibilities is creating guides and tutorials regarding Sony smartphones and tablets. Sony just released a SDK (Software Development Kit) for their “Smart Eyeglass”. However, some could claim that said openness would not be as important to Sony as it seems, as Alin Jerpelea is working alone in this section. However, as he emphasized in his interview at xda:devcon, he could always access the expertise of the entire Sony Group.

We are looking forward to seeing Sony working on open-sourced programs. As a developer community we would like to see other OEMs following the path made by Sony. Open-source friendly OEMs are something that Android in its current form craves the most. We wish Sony and its plans all the best.

[Big thanks to XDA Forum Moderator laufersteppenwolf for helping out with translation | via areamobile.de]

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source: xdadevelopers