Sony Ericsson has showcased its first mobile telephone built around Google’s Android operating system.
The Xperia X10 has an 8.1 megapixel camera, music player, high-speed web access, touch-sensitive screen, GPS and can use apps from the Android Market or SonyEricsson’s Play Now Arena. Known as Rachel while under development, the X10 is expected to go up for sale early in the first quarter of 2010. According to the company it is to be the first of a family of Android-based phones that may launch across the year.
Sony Ericsson’s previous smart telephone, the X1 which ran on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, had disappointed many users especially regarding its control panel. The X10’s control panel has been given an overhaul to help owners simply access social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook as well as e-mail and other messaging applications.
The telephone can work with 2nd and 3rd generation mobile networks, including HSPA, as well as Wi-Fi. The X10 runs version 1.6 of Android and has a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor from US chip firm Qualcomm. Facial recognition software built in to the phonephone will be in a position to analyse and recognise up to five faces in a single picture, immediately connecting that photo with a user’s’social telephone book’ and calls and messages sent to that person.
SonyEricsson’s call to produce Android-based phones is widely seen as an effort by the handset maker to win back some share of the market. For the last three quarters it has reported losses due to strong competition from rivals, particularly Apple’s iPhone. Many handset makers are increasingly turning to the Google Android platform in an effort to see off the challenge posed by Apple’s iPhone. Not like the iPhone, most Android devices are able to run background apps, allowing folks to get push notifications when they receive a new Facebook message or tweet, and feature’social’ telephone books, that pull in contacts from a wide selection of offline and online sources, and thread talks regardless of the strategy of communication used to contact a buddy.
Sony Ericsson have not said when Xperia X10 will go on sale or in which nations or networks. No price for the phonephone has been set either.