Sony Ericsson has announced new Android and Symbian devices but, in an interview with Show Daily ahead of its press conference, president Bert Nordberg preferred to talk strategy and synergy with its parent companies.

Nordberg made no bones about the fact the vendor has struggled. “We missed the window for high-end and touchscreen devices big time,” he said, noting that “part of the recovery will be much better design and closer work with our partner Sony… In the past there was no tie-up between us, the PSP platform and Sony, but you can expect to hear much more about that. Sir Howard Stringer’s [chairman and CEO of Sony] presence here is no coincidence.

“We are focusing on the home environment. The TV, PC, stereo and mobile will have a common communications interface – DLNA (for digital living network alliance). I want to put my big foot in the home alongside Sony.”

Of the three new devices announced last night, two were Android whilst the other runs Symbian. The vendor unveiled a ‘mini’ and ‘mini pro’ version of its Xperia X10 Android device, and took the wraps off a sister (‘pro’) version of its Symbian-based Vivaz device.

Last month Sony Ericsson named Japan’s NTT Docomo as the first operator customer for its debut, flagship Android smartphone, the Xperia X10. All three Xperia models will be available in the first half of this year.

The new Vivaz pro features a Qwerty keyboard enhancement to the original touchscreen Vivaz (announced last month) and will be available in selected markets from Q2.

Sony Ericsson has been much criticised for having too many models, which Nordberg stressed has been reduced from 55 devices to 35 over recent months. “For instance, we’ve combined the attributes of the Walkman and Cyber-shot into one Entertainment Unlimited device; we’ve taken the learnings,” he said.

He added that the company “is building our own user interface onto all our phones that is operating system agnostic, meaning Sony Ericsson phones will have a common user interface and user experience, but the operator will have freedom to differentiate their offerings by embedding what they want and bundling. I want to be the operators’ best friend and offer not an applications store, but a mall, so that we can leave it up to the operators to design it the way they want.”

To that end Sony Ericsson unveiled a new online platform called Creations. On Wednesday the vendor will host its Creation Day within App Planet.