It’s always awesome to hear of a new competitor for the mobile space, especially when that competitor comes from such a giant as Sony. Sony is in a position with the PlayStation Vita to make it such a success that it brings the operating system from it over to new devices in the near future. While its true that it seemed the Sony Ericsson last year did tell the world they’d be sticking with Android, now that Sony has purchased the remaining stock of that mobile venture from Ericsson, Sony’s now just “Sony” sect of mobile can do whatever they please. as Matsumoto spoke with AV Watch just a couple months ago:

“[Translated:] I’d like to point out that I mentioned the first thing Vita is is a hardware that provides digital entertainment only, and there there is the Vita OS which at the moment is just the OS made to provide it. The OS will continue to provide entertainment of all kinds, and though it’s made here to provide for a portable machine the best gaming experience for game enthusiasts, this is the thing edge of the wedge first.” – Matsumoto

Matsumoto went on to speak on how the operating system on the Vita is already receiving rave reviews on its speed and workability, noting how it was made using a mobile telephone network from the beginning. Because its basis is in the mobile world, even though it’s made for games right this moment, the operating system does have a bright future ahead of it, be it mobile, gaming, or both.

“[Translated:] We considered room for development in various directions including OS for smartphones from the beginning. For gaming consoles, the best hardware only must be considered to elicit top performance – but because we wanted the operating system to be scalable, we built this system from scratch with communication functions on mobile telephone networks from the outset. The touchscreen interface elements do not correspond exactly with a smartphone or tablet at the moment, but scalability makes it a possibility in the future.” – Matsumoto

We can’t wait for Sony to expand on not just Android now, but Vita OS (if this is what they keep for the name) in the very near future! Have at the mobile world, Sony, we’re ready for expansion!

Sony decided to buy out its long-time mobile partner Ericsson so it could focus on creating a more unified vision for its mobile unit. In a world where consumers are increasingly connecting all their consumer electronics together, Sony wants to have complete control over how smartphones and tablets play into its equation. The company now refers to its cell phone division as Sony Mobile Communications.

And that division is holding a press conference at this month’s big mobile trade show, though we don’t know anything beyond that. As far as the Xperia brand goes, it has been hit or miss in the US. The Xperia Play, a PlayStation-certified phone, was a real dud, while others like the Xperia Arc received solid reviews. It’ll be interesting to see how Sony progresses in the market without Ericsson breathing down their back.

[via Unwired View]

The company now enveloped by Sony noted that they had a sour economy, price erosion, restructuring charges, and a whole lot of Thailand flooding to blame when they spoke of their loss earlier this month. Sony Ericsson also announced a relatively clear pathway for 2012 to update their device line to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, this leading consumers perhaps to pick up their devices in 2012 to stay ahead of the pack. New devices showing up at CES 2012 showed the company to be well on track for creating new and innovative Android-based smartphones for the year, devices such as the Xperia ION and the XPERIA S packed with high definition displays and specifications to be proud of.

The purchase price for Sony picking up Sony Ericsson from Ericsson totals in at €1.05bn ($1.47bn) and we’re still guessing that Ericsson is more than ready to give up control to the larger company. Meanwhile we’ll be continuing to review devices from the newly minted Sony mobile sector while we move through this 12th year on the century. Feel free to dive into our Sony Ericsson archive to reminisce on this soon to be extinct brand name.

[via Reuters]

The price you’re seeing here comes from Negri Electronics, a store which your humble narrator has never before dropped cash on so cannot vouch for personally, but the price is telling. Inside this device you’re going to get a smashingly sized 4.55-inch HD display, a fabulous dual-core processor from Qualcomm, and a gigantic camera on the back. The camera is set at a whopping 12 megapixels strong and works with an Exmor R sensor while the processor is a dual-core Snapdragon clocked at 1.5GHz.

We’ve got our very own hands-on with this device if you’d like to take a look. Notice the 720p display, the ability to go from asleep to taking a photo in under 1.5 seconds, and the excellence of having a microHDMI port right beside your main microUSB port. There’s also a dock in there too that you’ll probably want to pick up for this device specifically, it having a couple of USB ports, microHDMI, and microUSB to get you rolling on your HDTV. Xperia on the way!

[via PocketNow]

It’s worth noting before running down more of the rumored specs, that none of the specs are confirmed at this time. The resolution of the 3.5-inch screen is supposed to be 854 x 480. The processor under the hood is said to run at 1GHz. The rear camera is pegged at 5MP and that is all the spec rumors we have for now.

The phone sounds like another mid-range device making for more of that old boring stuff Sony Ericsson tends to shill that will be overlooked by most buyers. I am sure I am not the only one who wishes Sony would stop with the boring, mediocre, smartphones. I bet the shareholders would too considering the major losses Sony Ericsson has been taking. Maybe Sony can turn things around when it gets the smartphone business in house.

[via Android Community]

Conspicuously absent from the list of excuses is any sort of recognition that Sony Ericsson’s own range might not have been up to scratch, though perhaps that degree of self-awareness is too much to hope for as the company enters its next evolutionary phase. Devices like the Xperia Arc S and Xperia ray were solid phones but fell short of the dual-core processors and high-definition screens of their Android rivals.

The next generation of devices show quiet promise however, with last week’s Xperia ion reveal impressing, though a fair number of low-end phones tipped for 2012 could see Sony taking its eye off the ball. Sony Ericsson at least began to show owners that they mean business with Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades, with a new degree of transparency that proved a marked contrast to its earlier poor update performance.

Nonetheless, people buy phones for what they do today, rather than for updates tomorrow, and that left Sony Ericsson’s Q4 performance reeling. The company will announce its full Q4 and 2011 figures on January 25, but you get the feeling Ericsson is really just looking forward to Sony coughing up €1.05bn ($1.47bn) and letting it escape midway through this quarter.

Launch dates are included as well, for those of you awaiting Sony’s oncoming storm of handhelds, and April is the next jump-off point. Inside April you’ll find three devices, the ST251 Kumquat_I, the LT221 Nypon_I, and the MT271 Pepper_I, each of these priced right around $400, so we must assume they’re mid-range based on the price scale Sony Ericsson has already set forth with their off-contract devices here in the United States and abroad. In June we’ve got a super cute Olive_I for right around that same price range, then in July there’s a tag-team of high and low-end devices, Hayabusa and Tapioca.

August has two low-end devices, the Tapioca_DS and the Lotus, while September has three devices, the Mint_I being the hero for the fall while the Atlas_I and the AFFM will be a couple more low-end devices again. The Nypon and the Kumquat are ones to watch, each of them tied previously to the not-oft-spoken-about NovaThor U8500-based chipset. Exciting!

[via GSMArena]

As for specs, you’ll find a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 32GB of internal storage, HDMI out, NFC (Near Field Communication), and support for 1080p HD video. The 4.3 inch display has a stunning 1280 x 720 HD resolution that looked great. It also sports a 12MP rear facing camera and 1.3MP front shooter.

It’s too bad the XPERIA S isn’t launching in the US, I would almost rather see it than the Ion LTE. Both phones were running Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) and have the latest version of their ‘Timescape’ UI. It is also said both should see Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) sometime in Q2. Also, don’t forget to check out our hands-on with the Ion LTE from earlier.

This device is working with a 720p display, has a set of functions called Fast Capture which allows you to go from asleep to taking a photo in under 1.5 seconds. For video output there’s a microHDMI port, this right next to the microUSB port – the two of them looking rather similar to the setup Motorola has on their latest suite of dual-core devices. There’s also a Smart Dock which you’ll be able to pick up that also has the same functionality Motorola’s recent docks do, this time with no additional power port – just USB, USB, microHDMI, and microUSB.

This device is made to be Sony Ericsson’s next big step back into the USA, and from what I’m seeing here, they’re doing a fabulous job of making it happen. We’ve got hands-on pics here and a video incoming – stay tuned!

OS – at least on this prototype – looks to be pre-ICS, with capacitive buttons on the fascia for home, back and menu. Our guess would be Android 2.3 Gingerbread, though if the Pepper ever actually makes it to shelves that may well change. A front-facing camera and twin microphones for noise-reduction are also visible, along with an LED flash for the main camera.

According to the tipster, you’re looking at Sony Ericsson’s planned successor to the Xperia Neo V of last year, which hardly fills us with untold joy. The boxed-off styling is reminiscent of the Arc HD leaks we’ve seen of late, but the mid-tier specs will need a competitive price tag in order to satisfy.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This device is what Sony Ericsson will almost certainly end up calling the XPERIA Arc HD, also thus far codenamed Nozomni. The smartphone has been tipped to have a 1280 x 720 display, this putting it up in the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4S range for superior resolution, and Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread will be pre-installed on it. Inside you’ll find a massive 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon MSM8660 chipset and absolutely no expandable memory. And of course a beast of a camera at 12-megapixels strong. The image clip you see above is part of what you see below:

In this image you’ll see that the device will work nicely in the subway, should you be hanging out in such a place, and a fully black exterior. This device has been tipped to be using a microSIM card, this being a rarity in the world of mobile outside the iPhone 4S and the Lumia 800, and more details have been spilled across the timeline you see below. We’ll certainly see this device up close and personal come CES 2012 next week – be there!

[via Facebook]

The 8GB of storage on this leaked prototype unit will end up filling fast if you go shutter-bug-happy, however, and we’re guessing 1080p Full HD video will also demand its share of the space. Hopefully Sony Ericsson is planning more capacious variants for the actual launch. No word on connectivity – we’re guessing the usual array of HSPA+, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth – but there’s a microSIM rather than the more common miniSIM, just as you’d find in an iPhone 4S or a Lumia 800.

Unfortunately the benchmarks only show one of the two processor cores active during testing, with Quadrant coming up with a score of 2219. Still, that’s all likely to change for production models, as Sony Ericsson is probably still fettling the software.

Ice Cream Sandwich at launch looks unlikely, as the translucent band running around the bottom of the Arc HD has back, home and menu buttons, as required in Gingerbread. Still, Sony Ericsson seems keen to get all its devices up to speed with Android 4.0 as soon as possible, so an upgrade is almost certain. We’ll know more when the Sony Ericssson XPERIA Arc HD makes its official debut, expected at CES next week.

That’s the same curved camera key, squared-off microUSB port and HD camera labeling as on the Arc S. Meanwhile, the Android camera/video toggle control from the gallery app would seem to hammer home that the new phone will be a multimedia-centric device.

The obvious explanation is the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc HD, well rumored over the past weeks, though with details still uncertain. Different leaks have tipped a 1.5GHz dual-core or 1GHz quadcore processor, a 12- to 13-megapixel camera, Full HD 1080p video recording and a choice of 16Gb or 32GB of storage, along with a 960 x 540 or 1280 x 720 display.

Gingerbread with a subsequent update to ICS is also expected. We won’t know for sure until next week, but SlashGear will be at CES to bring back all the details.

[via Xataka]

We had a short glimpse of what Sony Ericsson’s next device might be last week in a set of photos which said that its camera, at least, would be gigantic. It was the Sony Ericsson LT28a set for release on AT&T’s network, very possibly an LTE device, mind you, and its camera was (and probably is) 13 megapixels big! That’s one massively impressive device specification on its own, of course, but get this: also included was a dual-core 1.5GHz processor under the hood. Sony Ericsson, are you bringing something awesome to the show?

Also presented by Sony Ericsson was this image of a crew of ladies and gentlemen gathered around one device. This device looks to be standard sized, black, and rather interesting if their looks show off its results. We’ll see what we’re getting at next week – for now, courage. Sony Ericsson has now showed this device off on Google+ as well as Facebook, where you can apparently win one if you guess what it is!

You’ll find information outside the main details not lacking a bit if you’ll be believing what the sheet says, it showing this XPERIA device to be running what they’re calling “tablet capacity” specs, that being what’s listed above in addition to what we’ve come to expect from a high-end device: Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, single LED flash, WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual microphones, and a whole new interface (though details in that regard are scant.) Have a peek at a few photos that are said to have been taken with the device in the gallery here:

Each of these photos is taken with a 13 megapixel camera, whatever the camera may truly be, and if you can’t see them for yourself: yes, they look fabulous. With a camera as awesome as this on an Android here in the USA, could you possibly resist? Rock and roll all night and Sony every day!

[via XperiaBlog]

As of the end of April or early May, Sony Ericsson will begin pushing updates to the original XPERIA arc, as well as the XPERIA PLAY, XPERIA neo, XPERIA mini and mini XPERIA pro, and the XPERIA active. The Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman will also be upgraded in the same period.

It’s worth noting that, just because the upgrade begins in certain months, doesn’t mean all users will receive it at once. Instead, Sony Ericsson will be pushing ICS out in a staggered fashion, with each upgrade cycle expected to take a number of weeks.

There’ll also be the potential for carrier delays, as Sony Ericsson’s software is put through its paces by operators to check that it doesn’t cause issues with their networks. Don’t think you’ll escape the company’s customized interface, though; as we saw in Sony Ericsson’s Android 4.0 developer preview, the UI tweaks are here to stay.

It’s not clear whether this is a temporary sign issue or an indication of a more long-term change, though given Sony’s plans for the company it seems more likely to be the latter. The building Sony Ericsson’s corporate team occupies is rented from a Middle Eastern investor and the company is only ten years into a 25-year lease; that can be broken in late 2016, it’s suggested, meaning it’s likely that the premises will be used for some other purpose until that point even if Sony/Sony Ericsson have no plans to continue the current team there.

Sony announced plans to buy out Ericsson’s share in Sony Ericsson back in October, in a deal worth €1.05bn ($1.47bn) in cash. The Japanese company hopes to use its sole control over the smartphone business to bring it further in line with its existing PC, tablet and home entertainment divisions, pushing a so-called “four screen” strategy.

There are also numerous patents, owned by Sony Ericsson, that could better arm Sony in the current legal morass. Assuming no regulators complain, the deal is expected to be completed by the end of January 2012, though it looks like the renovators have got in early.

In fact, you’d be excused for wondering what, exactly, Sony Ericsson has left functional. You do get the new Android 4.0 UI, complete with the new Holo theme and music player controls added to the lock screen; there’s also a reworked interface in the settings and browser, together with the messaging action bar and multitasking system.

Perhaps most important to note is that, if you unlock the bootloader, you won’t be able to subsequently download and install Sony Ericsson’s official upgrade via the usual OTA distribution. Instead, you’ll have to download it and install it manually, just like this new alpha.

In short, this is basically a way for developers to begin getting up to speed with ICS and Sony Ericsson’s customized UI, not for end-users to jump onboard with the new OS. Still, we’re pleased to see the company being upfront with its software releases, something it has been well criticized about before.

More on Ice Cream Sandwich in the full SlashGear review.

There does not appear to be a microSD card slot, so you’ll be relying on the 16GB or 32GB of internal storage as your mainstay, and you’ll be clearing it out all the time with the gigantic camera on the back of this device: 12 megapixels with FullHD 1080p video. You’ve got a microHDMI port like many Motorola devices have had recently, 1080p streaming included, and the whole device will look rather similar to what we’ve seen from the Xperia line with the little green nubbin on the back as well. You’ll be rolling out also with a microSIM card slot too – micro city!

We’ll be seeing much more of this device in the very near future. Until then though, you’ll have to make due with this collection of shots on the front of a Sony Ericsson purple wave. Does this look like a device that has your name on it in the near future? You can bet this device won’t be coming out with Ice Cream Sandwich on it by the way, but Sony Ericsson is keen to update the masses inside 2012.

[via GSM Arena]

While it’s important to trust your instincts on this, there’s always a celebrity sports person to call up on the device you’ve just purchased to ask if you’ve done the right thing – in this case, it’s tennis superstar Maria Sharapova and her strange skull-cap haircut. It was back a few months ago that this commercial first appeared, teasing us all with claims that this device would change your sports-loving life. Have a peek at what Maria has to say about this little monster:

Then have a look at a much more superior glimpse at this device, complete with 3D vibrations that’ll make it seem like this device is certainly the one you want if you’re heavily active on the daily. Note that what they’re trying to tell you here is that this device is both dust-proof and water resistant and that it looks lovely flipping around in space. Also of note: this device is on Sony Ericsson’s list of devices that’ll receive the software update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich inside 2012. Fun!

The tip on the transition time frame comes from a Sony executive that spoke with an Indian newspaper. Sony still plans to sell only smartphones with no feature phones in the mix. All of the phones Sony makes will run Android and will be PlayStation certified devices as well.

Sony may have plans for the migration to its brand alone in place, but the deal still needs approval by regulators. I don’t think that a buyout by Sony of its partner in a venture that is only in the sixth spot for handset makers will have much of a problem making it past regulators.

[via Mobileburn]

However, Sony Ericsson followed up with a clarification that the deal wasn’t quite ready, and admitted that the announcement post had gone up mistakenly. “While we’re really excited about working with Box down the road, this offer is not active today” the company wrote today. “We are in the midst of finalising the details of this promotion and are working to provide this offer very soon to all Xperia customers.”

The deal echoes – or at least will echo, when Sony Ericsson re-launches it – a previous offer Box.net arranged with HP, giving TouchPad buyers 50GB of free storage. As with the HP deal, Sony Ericsson users will be able to keep their cloud space even if they change phones, access it from other devices and generally use it as if they’d paid for an upgrade themselves.

HTC announced a similar deal with Dropbox earlier this year. However, HTC buyers only get 5GB of storage on their phone or tablet, a tenth of what Sony Ericsson will offer.

[via Android Community]

Rumored specs for the device include a 960 x 540 resolution qHD display and according to at least one source the processor under the hood is the NovaThor U8500. That processor is a 1GHz dual core unit capable of supporting 1080p video recording and more.

The device will have HDMI and USB and can support smartphone cameras up to 20-megapixels. That USB support will be interesting since that would open the door to using real game controllers and external keyboards on the smartphone. There are also videos of test board running that processor below for you to peruse.

[via Recombu]

Once you download the Vscreen app, you point the browser on your larger screen to the vscreens.com page and scan the on-screen QR code with your smaller Android device from which you would like to share content. This then forms a link between your device and the browser on the larger screen allowing you to easily toss up photos and videos.

However, the Vscreen app will only be able to sync your device with a larger screen that’s sharing the same local WiFi network. The app is free and available now at the Android Market and requires Android 2.1 and above.

[via TechCrunch]

First have a peek at the Xperia arc S, a device running Gingerbread and popping out the gate with a single-core processor at 1.4GHz. The big deal with this device is its 4.2-inch Reality display complete with Mobile BRAVIA Engine, while the back-facing 8.1 megapixel camera with Exmor R for mobile image sensor promises to be a must-see as well. You’ve got the option of grabbing this device in Pure White, Gloss Black, Midnight Blue, or Misty Silver, and it’ll cost you MSRP $549.99 unlocked.

Then there’s the Xperia neo V, another Android Gingerbread device but this time with a 3.7-inch display and a 5 megapixel camera on the back. This device really shows off the lower end of the Xperia scale and is definitely on par with the last Xperia device we reviewed here on SlashGear: the Sony Ericsson XPERIA ray. This neo V device will come in at MSRP $349.99 unlocked.

There may be fanbois hyping Siri, but its ads just show what she can do (when the server is up). I’ve been calling Apple’s iPhone ads “30 second tutorials,” and they’re fantastic. They not only show you what the iPhone can do for you, but how easy it would be for you to do those things yourself if you only had an iPhone. In contrast, Verizon Wireless’ ads are ridiculous, and most of the time have nothing to do with the products they purportedly are selling.

The DROID ads may be bad at highlighting individual phones – and do nothing for the merits of Android overall – but they have been effective at getting consumers’ attention and serve as useful indicators that this is a product line consumers should be aware of. The DROID line has been extremely successful because of, not despite the ads. DROID-branded phones sell better than the non-DROID-labeled Android phones sitting right next to them on the shelf. Verizon Wireless measures its advertising effectiveness regularly and has found that it has done such a good job promoting the DROID brand that people walk into AT&T and Sprint stores and ask for a DROID phone, not an “Android” phone. Now, I don’t like these ads, either, but Verizon Wireless isn’t stupid, and it keeps running them because they work.

It’s easy to extend the criticism of Verizon Wireless’ ads to all of Apple’s competitors – there certainly have been some doozies. Palm did itself no favors with its ads for a vampire movie (supposedly an ad for the original Pre). The ad for HTC’s Rhyme is downright creepy, but even that pales next to Sony Ericsson’s 2011 Super Bowl ad, which featured a severed thumb. Microsoft’s first Windows Phone ads were memorable, but conveyed the wrong message: they implied that you can get stuff done quickly with a Windows Phone, but you’ll never love it as much as an iPhone.

But not all mobile advertising is bad. Samsung’s Galaxy S II TV spot is pretty good; it can be summed up as, “our phones have better specs because we’re perfectionist geeks.” The ad does a good job of humanizing Samsung’s brand while highlighting its phone’s screen technology, a key product differentiator, and one of the few specifications where consumers easily understand its benefits. HTC’s “You” ads were terrific, particularly its original “Anthem” ad, which showed people both happy and upset by things they do and associations they have with their phones – it’s rare you see a vendor use negative emotion well. Finally, Nokia’s Amazing Everyday campaign (currently running in Europe) is good – the Finns seem to understand how to advertise Windows Phone better than Microsoft itself.

Speaking of platform vendors, Google should be the one promoting its own platform capabilities, but it isn’t. (Ironically, given how it makes a living, Google doesn’t believe in advertising itself much.) Android licensees have shied away from promoting individual Android features for fear of enriching rivals. Instead, they have focused mainly on their own small hardware differences, which ends up appealing only to the small segment of the market that cares about such things.

However, in a vacuum, whoever is first with a strong message can own that message in consumers’ minds. Android has great features: rich home screen customization with glance-able information, persistent mapping across your phone and the web, the best Gmail implementation, and more. If a vendor highlighted those abilities, it is quite possible that consumers would not just want to buy any Android phone, but the Android phone from the vendor that they know has those features. They might not even realize that other Android phones can do those things, too.

So why hasn’t anyone run ads like that? Partly because they have not been bold enough to do so, fearing that it will not give them meaningful separation from their Android rivals. Some have resisted because, deep down, they don’t want to tie their brand indelibly to Google. But that is part of a bigger problem – many device vendors do not have a strong, independent brand identity. That is one of the key reasons Apple can run 30 second tutorials: everybody already knows what Apple’s brand stands for. Motorola? All Motorola used to stand for was fashion. That’s Ed Zander’s fault, and Motorola in the Sanjay Jha era has been too busy trying to survive to effectively redefine the brand.

But Motorola is hardly alone. RIM can’t seem to decide if it is primarily a business or consumer brand. What does LG stand for? Pantech? Huawei? To an extent, Apple’s rivals need to try to stand out because they need consumers to notice them in the first place. I don’t suggest doing that with creepy vampire girls, creepy four-armed women, or Tron refugees battling cyborgs. But I do understand the impulse.

No matter how that strategy pans out, what Apple and Sony agree on is that the traditional TV paradigm must evolve if the segment is to become profitable again. A new model is “what we’re all looking for,” Stringer confirmed, suggesting that “we can’t continue selling TV sets [the way we have been]. Every TV set we all make loses money.”

Losing money is something Sony is painfully familiar with at present. The company announced dire LCD TV sales in its recent financial sales results, warning of a $1.15bn year loss though cautioning that part of the impact was the flooding in Thailand and other matters beyond Sony’s control. It will spend €1.05bn ($1.43bn) buying out Ericsson’s share of Sony Ericsson and taking sole control of smartphone design and production, though the two companies will continue to collaborate on WWAN-enabled devices.

Apple, meanwhile, is believed to be working on a Siri-enabled television, which would use the company’s new voice control system to bypass the traditional remote. The product has been described as “guaranteed” to launch by insiders, something Stringer has “no doubt” will take place, though the chief exec cautions that Apple should expect it to “take a long time to transition to a new form of television.” Sony, he suggests, is ready today however; he says that he “spent the last five years building a platform so I can compete against Steve Jobs” and that “it’s finally launching now.”

Hardware

This device is made of hard plastic and “scratch-resistant” glass for the most part, with a slightly less-than-impressive plastic button sitting at the bottom-center-front. What’s awesome about this little half-circle button is that it’s got a multi-color half-border of color around it to show off notifications galore. The not-so-awesome piece of the puzzle is that it makes a little tapping noise when you touch it lightly. This seems to me to mean that it’s made to be pressed a thousand times but that it’s not as perfectly fashioned to fit as the rest of the device appears to be.

The phone fits in your hand like one of the older generations of iPod Nanos, like a long pack of gum that just to happens to hold your smartphone guts inside it. The one we’ve got here has a wine-colored back panel complete with the Sony Ericsson green orb which looks lovely against any color, and the speaker resides underneath. The speaker is comparable to the rest of the XPERIA line, it being OK but nothing all that fantastic, while the camera and single LED bulb are certainly something to write home about. They’re great, they produce fairly awesome photos, and the shutter speed is near instant – and that LED can be used as a lamp for photos without any special hack, a definite plus!

The display has so many pixels inside it, you might have a heart attack. If you’re used to device like the iPhone 4 or 4S, you know that more pixels mean a sharper image, and that’s true here as well. One must ask though, what’s it worth at so small a scale? That’s a question you’ll have to ask yourself and your petite hands. If you’ve got any sort of fingers that are bigger than mine are (see the hands-on video), you’ll be in trouble. This device is definitely made for those with tiny fingers and tiny palms

Above you’ll see the XPERIA ray next to the AT&T Galaxy S II with a Super AMOLED Plus display – see the brightness next to this device’s TFT display’s brightness and decide for yourself which is brighter – and better.

Software

The software here is extremely comparable to the rest of the recent range of XPERIA devices, so I won’t go too deep into the specifics. Instead head back to our review of the XPERIA Mini PRO or the XPERIA Neo, both of them devices with essentially the same Sony Ericsson software aboard. That said, the software is a really refreshing vision of Android for those of you who’ve never tried it.

While some manufacturer’s user interfaces are looked down upon by those who want their devices to be strictly vanilla Android, the XPERIA range has a look that if I owned an XPERIA device, I’d keep rather than hacking or replacing with a home-replacement app. And that’s saying something. The only other custom UI I keep on a smartphone instead of reaching for the root is Samsung’s current flavor of TouchWiz, as found on the AT&T Galaxy S II.

Have a peek at a couple of standard benchmarks, one Quadrant Advanced and the other CF-Bench, to access some numbers-based details on the device:

Camera

The camera here is impressive, very impressive for how tiny the smartphone itself is. While the rest of the devices that’d otherwise be comparable to this one tote 5-megapixel shooters that are for the most part lacking, this XPERIA ray smartphone has a camera that holds its own against top-tier devices that cost 3x as much. Have a look below at some examples (with more photos found in the gallery at the bottom of this post.) You’ll find 720p video and 8-megapixel photos looking nice.

Battery

The standby on this device is amazing. The phone has a 1500 mAh battery and as the screenshot below will show, you’ve got DAYS of time with this device ahead of you. If you’re using it strictly for video and heavy processing, you’ll be working for less than 10 hours, but if you only use it like a normal person, checking the email once every couple of hours, watching a YouTube here and there, playing a game while you’re on the bus, you’ve got a couple of days without need for a charge – that’s utterly awesome.

Wrap-Up

This device is a surprisingly enjoyable to use device for its size, but the cost might be prohibitive to most Americans used to getting their devices on-contract for the major discount available when a carrier gets ahold of a device. Today you can purchase the XPERIA ray for $359.99 off-contract from NewEgg. For the average consumer internationally, that might be the norm, but here in the USA, I have a funny feeling that not just a whole lot of these handsets will be selling off the shelves.

Should Sony Ericsson find a way to hook up with AT&T to get this device’s price down to something like $150 USD, they’ll have a winner on their hands. A tiny device with a fantastically sharp display and a camera that takes excellent video and photos. The processor is only 1GHz single-core, but aside from the most high-powered apps on the market today, you’ll still be able to run everything you like, including HD videos – of course again, the display is tiny, but sharpness is key.

A lot has changed in the ten years since Sony and Ericsson inked their partnership, and I’m not just talking about that oft-quoted pivotal iPhone moment. High speed cellular networks have proliferated in North America, Asia and Europe, delivering 3G and increasingly 4G speeds not only in patches but more consistently across states and entire countries. Meanwhile user expectations have snowballed, beyond simple calls and the occasional SMS to include multimedia messaging, email and multimedia, along with persistent access to a range of cloud stores containing music, video, documents and other data.

Then there’s hardware. A decade ago, sub-centimeter thick tablets with all-day battery life, big touchscreens and processors as fast as computers were, quite literally, the stuff of science fiction. Cameras have gone from being chunky, standalone gadgets to ubiquitous accessories. In short, no longer is it enough to slap “Walkman” branding and a headphone jack on a basic cellphone and expect it to coast through the marketplace.

Sony Ericsson had already confirmed it was shifting its focus exclusively to smartphones in 2012, betting the farm on Android and the increasing demand for handsets that do more than make calls and play music. Nonetheless, the company had struggled as an also-ran, in many cases, against its Android contemporaries.

Samsung led the way in cutting edge hardware, a benefit of its considerable manufacturing heft, while HTC had been in many ways the consumer choice, its efforts with Sense the most compelling and thorough of the UI modifications. Motorola had its close relationship with Verizon Wireless, and now of course is slipping neatly into Google’s back pocket. In contrast, Sony Ericsson was beginning to look precariously balanced on the periphery, with no homegrown tablets – only cousins in Sony’s line-up – and word of increasing managerial tensions over how well-established brands like Walkman and PlayStation would be leveraged. All the time, Apple continued to build momentum as the wunderkind of the smartphone segment, the “obvious choice” for fashion following consumers.

Ironically, Sony has always been the most likely challenger to Apple; in fact in many ways it already had a head start. The company’s BRAVIA TVs are well respected, and their position in the gaming segment firmly cemented with the PlayStation range; the VAIO line-up is one of the rare computing exceptions to the adage that only Mac shoppers will pay for styling. Steve Jobs even admitted once that he looked to the Japanese company for inspiration in their consistency of design and purity of product message, factors which have waned over the years.

What Sony has struggled to do is capitalize in its potential, only now beginning to rise to the challenge of interconnectedness across its various ranges. The company’s Google TV products sank after making little impact to the smart TV segment, while PC sales across the board have been drearily unimpressive. Standalone MP3 players long ago lost their charm as first the iPod and then smartphones took over their functionality. Most promising has been the DLNA and universal remote support in the recent Sony tablets, taking functionality that has been around for some time but dressing it up in a way that makes it more compelling, more instantly appealing to consumers.

Android will undoubtedly play a significant role in Sony’s mobility future, and by bringing Sony Ericsson fully into the family fold the platform’s potential can be leveraged. With some clever integration between phones and tablets, for instance, Sony could leapfrog Samsung in tying together ownership of both, similar to how Apple has positioned iPhone and iPad as ideal companions. The Qriocity subscription-based streaming media service begins to look a whole lot more compelling when you have multiple devices you can use it on. Then there’s gaming, an area that Apple undoubtedly lags behind in today but is forever rumored to be targeting as the Next Big Thing, and which has the potential for truly engaging multi-device functionality for the company who controls not only your console but your high-powered smartphone, PC and tablet.

In the end, it’s control over its own future that Sony so desperately needed: the flexibility to react to the market and rivals by itself, to develop devices it finally considers truly worthy of its coveted branding, and most importantly control over the speed at which it can act. Buying up Sony Ericsson isn’t the be-all and end-all of this story – in fact it’s just the start of it – but if Sony can deliver on its ambitious “four-screen strategy” of phones, tablets, computers and TVs it could well make this a two horse race between it and Apple.

Sony’s intention had been leaked earlier this month, with the deal then tipped to be worth between $1.3bn and $1.7bn for Ericsson. The two companies will continue to work together, planning to set up a joint initiative designed to promote wireless connectivity. However, Ericsson’s overall “focus is on the global wireless market as a whole” Sony says.

“The transaction gives Sony an opportunity to rapidly integrate smartphones into its broad array of network-connected consumer electronics devices – including tablets, televisions and personal computers – for the benefit of consumers and the growth of its business. The transaction also provides Sony with a broad intellectual property (IP) cross-licensing agreement covering all products and services of Sony as well as ownership of five essential patent families relating to wireless handset technology” Sony

Meanwhile, the buy-out gives Sony a valuable haul of patents, handy things to have when the smartphone and tablet market is embroiled in legal sparring over which company invented what. Although the exact patents involved aren’t detailed, Sony describes it as “a broad IP cross-licensing agreement and ownership of five essential patent families.”

“With a vibrant smartphone business and by gaining access to important strategic IP, notably a broad cross-license agreement, our four-screen strategy is in place. We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment. This includes Sony’s own acclaimed network services, like the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network” Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, Sony

The acquisition is expected to close in January 2012, subject to relevant approvals. Sony Ericsson had previously announced that its 2012 focus is to be smartphones.

Inside you’ll find that Sony Ericsson calls their Timescape user interface as well as a unique collection of apps you wont find comparable to any other device your humble narrator has recently come across. One would think that such a unique looking device would be running something rather odd, and at this size, something more like a feature phone OS, but look, that’s Android alright, and it’s looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself. The single home button has a light-up rim for notifications, a long-press will give you a screenshot, and the blue tinge to the whole system makes for a rather, again, unique look at Android.

This device has a sort of wine-colored back casing that covers the battery, the AT&T SIM card, and a microSD card slot that comes with a 4GB card right out of the box. This is Sony Ericsson’s answer to a market that, with the onset of the smartphone, may well have otherwise disappeared: the tiny phone. We’ll be concentrating on seeing how well this device performs in the field over the next few days – meanwhile let me know in the comments what you’d like to know about the device – ask away and I’ll do my best to answer in the full review!

Meanwhile check out the hands-on video and the photos above and below and see how tiny this little machine really is!

SE isn’t the only firm looking to upgrade smartphones launched this year to ICS. Motorola has announced that the Droid RAZR will also get the upgrade to Android 4.0 early next year. The RAZR is launching with Honeycomb onboard. I would wager if Motorola were planning an early 2012 upgrade SE will be as well. The tip comes from Facebook.

Sony Ericsson Netherlands posted to its Facebook page that the upgrade would be happening and pointed readers to its official blog to wait for more details in the coming weeks and months. The photo you see here is the Facebook post. The translated post reads:

We are planning our 2011 Xperia smartphone portfolio after Gingerbread 2.3.4. upgrade to the next Android platform. The official Sony Ericsson communication about software upgrades will always be my international colleagues publish on our Blog: http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/

[via Android Community]

The Q3 shipment numbers are up significantly from Q2 2011 though, in Q2 SE shipped 7.6 million units. The average selling price in Q3 2011 is up as well at 166 euro compared to 154 euro in Q3 2010. In Q2 2011 SE reported a significant loss of -37 million euro. That has turned into a 38 million euro gain with an operating margin of 2%. SE CEO Bert Nordberg announced that the more than 80% of the devices that SE sold were smartphones.

This is where the most interesting part of the investors chat came in. SE will shift its entire portfolio to smartphones in 2012. That means no more feature phones or other devices from SE after this year. SE thinks that its share of the Android Market is 12% in volume and 11% in value.

Sony Ericsson’s 50-50 joint venture was created back in 2001 and is currently the world’s sixth largest cellphone manufacturer. However, Sony’s probably not too happy with being left so far behind with Samsung and Apple continuing to dominate the mobile landscape. The Japanese company’s new strategy aims to integrate its mobile phones, gaming devices, and PC businesses to reduce cost and make development faster and more efficient.

Sony sees smartphones and tablets as essential components in growing its online network of music, videos, and games. The company has long wanted to feature its Sony PlayStation brand on its phones, but the venture has hindered development. Both sides seem set on going forward with the deal but are still ironing out a proper valuation for Ericsson’s business and mobile patents.

[via WSJ]

As for concerns that Sony Ericsson has fallen behind in the spec race, with rivals like HTC and Motorola adopting dual-core processors and 4G connectivity while it makes do with single-cores and 3G, Nordberg argues that taking a wait-and-see approach is the more sensible strategy. “We are quite careful throwing ourselves into new technology,” he suggested, “simply because there is no guarantee that consumers will buy, just because we develop it.”

“But it’s safe to say that Sony Ericsson should have taken the iPhone more seriously when it arrived in 2007″ he conceded, though maintains that the company’s “Android strategy has been successful and the best choice we could have made.”

Asked whether Sony Ericsson would have liked to have acquired Motorola Mobility – the handset manufacturer Google announced it was buying earlier this year – Nordberg pointed to finances and regulations. “Before you go shopping you have to become rich” he pointed out, “and a deal between us would have been extremely complicated, with us being a private company with two large owners and them being a listed US company.”

Sony Ericsson will now focus on boosting its US market share, the CEO says, building on sales of the XPERIA Play.

This device’s motor, again, is a 1GHz Scorpion processor, you’ll also get Adreno 205 GPU with your MSM8255 Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. If that sentence just completely flew over you head, basically what it means is that you’ll do fine for games and apps, but it’s not nearly as powerful as the dual-core processors we’re seeing on many smartphones on carriers here in the USA these days. Sony Ericsson seems to be pushing this device out as a promotion of their lovely form factor and color options (white) rather than trying to win the specs contest.

They’ve also got a pretty neat little commercial to go along with the device as it’s important to have such a presentation here in the USA as you well know. The high color BRAVIA ENGINE running the display, HD recording on its 8.1 megapixel camera with Exmor R technology shown to make it all look quite impressive, the Android Market coming with the device right out of the box as well. An odd point here – they’re showing the old Android Market here still – the newest Android Market having been released since this commercial was first shown back in June.

You can grab this device from Newegg today with just a few taps and a credit card. Feel free to pick me up a few other gadgets while you’re there, Newegg for life.

Bonus colors!

Apparently the FreeXperia group had existed before now, but Sony Ericsson has today for the first time voiced and promised their support officially. The FreeXperia group was up until this point supported by Sony Ericsson with devices and technical know-how and just announced today by SE they are in the process of creating some brand new ROMs for Xperia devices like the Xperia PLAY and the Xperia arc that are based on CyanogenMod, the most famous ROM of all.

At this point we should warn you, as Sony Ericsson does, of the following:

Important note: By unlocking your phone and running a custom ROM you may void the warranty. See your phone’s warranty statement for details.

In the spring of 2011, Sony Ericsson first announced that they’d be unlocking bootloaders for their Xperia line of devices. What this means, for the lay person, is that they’d officially be able to be unlocked for hackers to play around in their guts. What’s happened since then is a group called FreeXperia has popped up in the developer underground to push custom user interfaces and ROMs to the Xperia line of phones. Amongst those are, again, Cyanogenmod, and now Sony Ericsson is voicing (and providing) support in several ways.

Karl-Johan Dahlström, Head of Developer Relations, speaks on the matter:

During some time now, the FreeXperia group of independent developers have been working on the CyanogenMod custom ROM for our latest Xperia™ phones. From a Sony Ericsson Developer program perspective, we were impressed by the passion shown and decided to help out with some bits and pieces, since we are aware that Sony Ericsson phones have been somewhat difficult to work with from an open developer point of view. A few proprietary solutions needed to be explained and we helped them with that. This included the camera, where we provided debugged and rebuilt camera library binaries, which we will soon make available on Developer World under a special EULA license. We also supported the group with approximately 20 devices, to make their work easier.

It’s exciting to see this support coming from on high at Sony Ericsson and we look forward to the 3rd party developer community gaining continued support through the future!

[via Sony Ericsson]

The game is called Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. It appears that in the plan on Sony Ericsson’s part to get gamers interested in the Play is to get exclusive games that only owners of the gaming phone will be able to get, at least to start with. If the graphics in the game are in the realm of the rendering above it will be a very cool game to play.

The Xperia Play has been on sale in the States for a while now. Sony Ericsson has announced this month that the smartphone will hit NTT DOCOMO in October so Japanese fans can get their hands on the smartphone. There is no indication of an exact launch date or how much the exclusive game will cost.

“With a unique control pad and immersive graphics that enable an enriched gaming experience, Xperia™ PLAY is bringing a unique and exciting dimension to smartphone gaming,” said Ben Cusack, Head of Mobile for Square Enix Europe. “This is just the start of what we plan to do together, but right now, we are delighted to be able to show off the full potential of our games with this innovative smartphone, bringing them to life as our creators intended.”

“Xperia™ PLAY continues to redefine smartphone gaming. By bringing some of the world’s most popular console games to the Xperia™ PLAY we’re delivering an unrivalled smartphone gaming experience,” said Tim Harrison, Head of Content & Marketing Strategy for Sony Ericsson. “And this is still really only just the beginning – we will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with new games and new experiences optimized for Xperia PLAY, ensuring that consumers have the best gaming possible experience on a smartphone, whatever games they are in to.”

“When it comes to future platforms of the Android OS, we will make them available to consumers in a timely manner,” the company told SlashGear, “as long as they improve the user experience and are viable from a hardware point of view.” Right now, though, there’s no official policy that Sony Ericsson is sharing on upgrades.

That could well be an issue of specifications. The company’s range this year has worked from a 1GHz processor baseline, but Sony Ericsson is yet to shift from single-core chips to dual-cores; it’s unclear whether Ice Cream Sandwich will require more than one core or not, since Google is yet to release minimum specifications.

Sony Ericsson has been working hard to improve its reputation for software upgrades, after a dismal showing around the first generation of handsets that left many owners frustrated and angry. The 2011 range of devices has seen more timely updates, and Sony Ericsson even changed its mind and promised Gingerbread for the XPERIA X10 having originally said the device would be left behind.

Those specs are looking a whole lot less appealing several months down the line, however, as is the XPERIA Play 4G’s Adreno 205 graphics, 5-megapixel main camera and VGA facing front-camera. Still, if you’re an avid gamer and you demand dedicated controls then there’s not much else on offer: the Play 4G is still the only phone to have dedicated PlayStation buttons and a touch-sensitive analog pad.

Seven titles will be preloaded: Dungeon Defenders Second Wave, Asphalt 6 Adrenaline, Star Battalion, Madden NFL 11, The Sims 3, Tower Bloxx: My City and Crash Bandicoot. Meanwhile there will be 150 other titles up for purchase.

AT&T will be bundling the XPERIA Play 4G with the Sony Ericsson Multimedia Dock DK300 and MC100 music cable as part of its $49.99 package. You’ll need to agree to a two-year agreement with a mandatory data plan, of course.