Sony Ericsson Introduces New Line of Phones

According to a recent article of John Blau, Sony Ericsson, a joint venture established in 2001 between the Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company, Ericsson, will release six new phones including a 9GB Walkman handset. The W960 Walkman phone has double the memory of previous models and features a touch screen display, a keyboard, supports Wi-fi and 3g, and has a 3.2 megapixel camera. Company spokeswoman for Sony Ericsson said that the new Walkman phone isn't designed by Sony as an answer to the iPhone but is a further development of the Walkman.

The World's number four mobile phone maker also introduced a new device for its Cybershot camera phones. The K850 will have a 5 megapixel camera, autofocus and xenon flash. This device will have advanced camera features and supports triband HSDPA. The introduction of these new line of phones took place last Thursday in a Technology show in Berlin. Also unveiled were new accessories which will include a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit that can be connected to a mobile phone and also several Bluetooth headsets.

Reuters also recently reported that some Japanese employees of Sony Ericsson filed a patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a mobile phone with video game features. This prompted some rumors to circulate about a new PSP mobile phone. The spokeswoman however, previously denied that they will be announcing this new PSP mobile phone.

"The patent is registered; we register many patents," the spokeswoman said. "But we don't have a PSP mobile phone in the planning. I can't say that we won't see such a device in 10 years but there are no plans to build one at the present time."

Bloggers have described the PSP Mobile phone patent as a device with a rotating display which switches automatically into landscape mode for gaming. The keys below the display change automatically from numeric keys into game controls when the screen is moved. Several screenshots of the patent can be found at some video gaming blog sites.

However, John Blau's article stated that PSP owners may soon be able to make calls since British Telecommunications announced last month a software-based internet telephony package that it has been working on. The software will allow PSP owners to make voice and video calls using a Wi-Fi network. The software will then be later on extended to cover calls to PCs, fixed line phones and mobile phones.

SOURCES:

John Blau, Sony Ericsson to Unveil 9GB Music Phone, PC World. URL: (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132884-pg,1/article.html)

Andy Robinson, Sony Ericsson's PSP phone? Computerandvideogames.com URL: (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=165270)