Sony Ericsson announces firm date for first countries to receive the XPERIA X1
The UK, Germany and Sweden will be the inaugural launch sites for Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 when it is released on 30 September.
The Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone will then be rolled out around the world with 32 more countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America expected to get the handset by the fourth quarter of the year.
North America, China, Australia, and Russia are also listed as committed launch regions, though dates for those are still to be announced.
There is to be a “live global webcast” hosted by Sony Ericsson on 15 September to demonstrate the Xperia X1 “in-depth”.
This will be followed by the first of the nine episodes from the Johnny X reality thriller. A Q&A session will also be held on Sony Ericsson’s Premiere website.
Rikko Sakaguchi, senior VP and head of creation and development at Sony Ericsson, said the in-depth demonstration on the web cast would showcase how the handset was “truly unique”.
He said the nine panel eco-system put the user in total control of the primary experiences available on the phone and allowed consumers to personalize the panel interface to suit their needs and lifestyle.
“The Xperia X1 has the highest quality screen on the market, four-way navigation keys and optical joy stick to give a stress-less browsing experience and, with its super fast processor and network speed the Xperia X1 really bridges the gap between personal, entertainment and work mobile needs,” he said.
The first device from Sony Ericsson’s Xperia sub-brand, the X1 has many high-end features, including: a 3 inch TFT touchscreen display with accelerometer and a wide 800 x 480 pixel resolution, a panel-based interface to work with Windows Mobile 6.1, global GSM and HSDPA connectivity, a full QWERTY keyboard, internal GPS and A-GPS, Wi-Fi and full HTML browser, a 3.2 MP auto focus camera with flash and video recording, lots of multimedia-oriented goodies and 400MB of expandable memory.
Before the actual availability of the new handset, Sony Ericsson will showcase it at Tent London, between September 18 and September 21, during the London Design Week. No price has yet been released for the Xperia X1.
A full list of the countries earmarked for Xperia X1 release in 2008:
– Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland
– Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam
– The Middle East: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE
– Latin America: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay
– Africa: South Africa.
The Samsung Instinct, touted as a worthy rival to the iPhone, has gone on sale in the US at a reduced price.