Quite awhile back, Sony Ericsson phones used to be my favorites. I can still remember the W810, or any of its lettered variants, and its black-and-orange color scheme. There was a silver one that was nice, but I had a natural affinity towards the black and orange. There was another model that featured a rotating top half, which, back then, was pretty cool.

Back in those days, phone designs were pretty unique and Sony Ericsson was a company that, while focusing on the features that they could back then, made interesting looking handsets. They weren’t the only ones, of course, but some of those devices remain pretty memorable to me, even to this day.

Following the natural progression of the mobile industry, we’ve lost the unique phone designs, but that’s okay. The features tucked inside these large slab devices, along with the software itself, more than make up for it. Then again, when companies are essentially making the same devices, a love for a company’s handsets can ultimately fade out.

That’s what happened with me and Sony, minus the Ericsson, years ago. I’m not sure that I’ve ever been completely dissatisfied with a Sony-branded flagship as a whole, and there have been some in the past that I’ve really looked forward to using, but I’ve never kept one.

And that has everything to do with the proprietary software on the handsets.

Sony’s inclusion of its own software over Android has never settled with me. Even at face value I’m not a fan of the icon packs that Sony uses, which automatically turns me off from wanting to use it. Digging into the software only makes it worse. That’s why the features, and the software, are so important these days. Sony, Motorola, LG, HTC, and so on and so forth are all making top-notch high-end smartphones, and the software needs to be amazing to differentiate them.

For me, Sony’s missed that mark recently, but I was quite honestly pretty sad that rumors were suggesting the company would be ditching the smartphone business for other waters. Sony is like BlackBerry for me, insofar that I don’t want to see these names leave the industry altogether. They’ve been around so long that I know they can find their footing again, but changes have to be made.

For me personally, it’s just the software. I don’t even necessarily care if Sony opted to use stock Android on their handsets, even if I can also admit that would be pretty amazing. The company could still use their own software, use their own icon packs, and stuff a ton of features into it all, but I just want it to look different. Sony’s been using the same aesthetics for awhile now, and I’ll tell you right here and now that every time they announce a new phone I’ve got my fingers crossed that the software has changed in a big way.

Sony’s hardware is where it needs to be, as far as I’m concerned. Maybe one day they’ll make the changes I’m wanting in their software and proprietary choices, and then I’ll flock back over to the Sony ranks. Until then, though, I’ll try to keep from getting disappointed every time I see a new Sony-branded smartphone.

When’s the last time you owned a Sony smartphone? Have you ever? Do you know someone that has stuck with the brand? Let me know!