The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sony Ericsson is launching its first Windows Mobile phone, a business-oriented, touchscreen "arc slider" device called the Xperia X1.

Dee Dutta, Sony Ericsson head of marketing, said Xperia is "the first brand that is truly borne from within Sony Ericsson," and it delivers a "seamless blend of mobile Web communication and multimedia entertainment with a distinctive design."

Big Win for Microsoft

The new device features a wide-pitch QWERTY keyboard and is the first in a new line bearing the Xperia name. It has a 3-inch VGA screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording, an FM radio and a slight arc when the keyboard slides out. The company said typing is fast and easy because of the "ample distance" between keys. The phone offers quad-band GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA 850/1700/1900/2100MHz, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity.

The phone has four kinds of interactive navigation -- touch, the keyboard, a 4-way keypad and an optical joystick -- and adjustable interface panels for different applications. The X1 will be available in the second half of this year. "This is a big, big win for Microsoft," said Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. He noted that the software giant now has "four of the top five handset manufacturers" -- Motorola, Samsung and LG in addition to Sony Ericsson. "Everybody," he said, "but Nokia." Windows Mobile opens up the U.S. smartphone market to them, he added.

IDC's Chris Hazelton said the new X1 will be particularly appealing to IT departments because it can immediately support Microsoft Exchange and other common business software such as Office Mobile. It also has well-tested remote control management. Hazelton noted that Sony Ericsson had a number of "prosumer" devices with the UIQ interface on top of a Symbian operating system. He and Greengart said the U.S. enterprise market was not receptive to UIQ-based devices.

With the release of its first Windows Mobile device, Hazelton added, Sony Ericsson is splitting its consumer and enterprise devices into UIQ and Windows Mobile devices. UIQ is a good interface for consumer devices, he said, with a friendly front end geared to multimedia. Sony Ericsson, formed in 2001, is the fourth-largest cell-phone maker in the world by market share. Its new Windows Mobile phone is part of an effort to increase its U.S. presence, but, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal, those plans do not include buying Motorola's mobile-phone division. Sony Ericsson has been steadily increasing its sales compared to Motorola's.

Sony Ericsson's new chief executive, Hideki Komiyama, told the Journal that the idea of buying out his competitor is not attractive, and he intends to implement the U.S. strategy through "organic growth."