Xperia phone to premiere everywhere but North America
Sony Ericsson said today that its Xperia X1 phone will be available in the fourth quarter in parts of Western Europe, Central Europe, the Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Africa, and Latin America...yet not in North America.
The Xperia X1 will premiere on Tuesday, September 30, in the company's home base countries of Great Britain, Germany, and Sweden, the company stated today ahead of press events scheduled throughout Europe. But no release dates were given for the US or Canada.
According to the company, "facts and features may vary depending on local variant." In listing the areas slated for fourth quarter availability, Sony Ericsson named South Africa; 10 countries in Western Europe; three in Central Europe; three in the Middle East; five in Latin America; and another 10 in the Asia-Pacific.
Availability dates for North America, China, Australia, Russia, and some other areas of the world "will be announced by local markets in the coming months," according to this morning's statement.
Sony Ericsson first announced the X1 last February. But the company plans to preview the smartphone in a webcast on September 15 and also to hold a public and press launch at Tent London in the UK during the week of September 18 to 21, which is London Design Week.
The manufacturer is touting the Windows Mobile-enabled multimedia phone as featuring an "extremely stylish" and "striking" arc-slider design in a stainless steel body; a high-resolution (800 x 400 pixels), panel-enabled wide touchscreen interface; built-in 3.2 megapixel camera; FM radio; GPS; video streaming support; an integrated modem; wireless LAN, Bluetooth, USB, and microSD support; and navigation through touch, a four-way navigation key, and optical joystick. Sliding the screen upward will reveal a wide-pitch QWERTY keyboard.
Offered in a choice of solid black or steel silver, the X1 will come with Windows Mobile Operating System 6.1, along with both the Internet Explorer Mobile and Opera 9.5 browsers. It will also support e-mail, SMS text messaging, MMS picture messaging, video calling, and RSS feeds.
Software applications aboard the phone will consist of 3D games; two media players (one of them Windows Media Player Mobile, and the other unspecified); and an organizer containing an alarm clock, calculator, calendar, document reader; handwriting recognition, and "flight mode," among other features.