BARCELONA—Sony Ericsson kicked off Mobile World Congress with a press conference on Sunday's eve of the event, announcing three new phones, including a couple running on Android.
The Xperia X10 mini and X10 mini pro are compact versions of the Xperia X10 and, like their predecessor, run on Android.
The Xperia X10 mini and X10 mini pro come with slide-out qwerty keyboards and build on the human curvature design philosophy debuted in the Xperia X10. The new phones incorporate Sony Ericsson’s Timescape, so users can see at a glance their text messages, missed calls and Facebook and Twitter updates. They include an interactive music player that uses the “infinite button” to pull together music content from the music store and YouTube.
The phones, which support EDGE and HSPA for U.S. frequencies, will be available in select markets in the second quarter. Sony Ericsson did not name any carrier partners.
Following on the Vivaz announced in January, Sony Ericsson debuted the Symbian-based Vivaz pro, which adds a qwerty keyboard to the touch screen offering. Both devices allow consumers to produce and broadcast in HD video. Users can personalize their entertainment by downloading apps through PlayNow and the Symbian Developer Community.
The pro version will be available in the second quarter and supports UMTS HSPA at 850/1900/2100 and GPRS/EDGE at 850/900/1800/1900, besides other frequencies.
Sony Ericsson also used its event to launch a new online platform, Creations, enabling mobile phone users to create and publish their own content such as video, audio and imaging to be shared, explored and remixed using content-creating mobile applications and tools. Developers will hear more about the co-creation experience at Sony Ericsson’s Creation Day on Wednesday in the App Planet in Hall 7.