Earlier today, mobile giant Sony Ericsson posted their third quarter financials via a conference call. The handset maker managed to eek out a third consecutive quarter of profits; bringing in $69 million in net income on sales of $2.26 billion. It’s not all sunshine in Japan/Sweden. The volume of handsets being shipped by SE did dip significantly. Chief Executive, Bert Nordberg, had the following to say: “Our strategy to focus on the smartphone segment is succeeding and smartphones now comprise more than 50% of our total sales. During the quarter, we launched our Android-based Xperia models in new markets, such as China and the U.S.”

Sony Ericcson has been — unsuccessfully — playing market share catch up over the past few months, but having named themselves as a partner for Window Mobile 7… it’s still game on.

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While speaking with Microsoft’s head of marketing in the U.K., Oded Ran, blog mymicrosoftlife.com learned that Sony Ericsson is actively working on at least one Windows Phone 7 device. The company, which is struggling to make an identity for itself in the smartphone marketplace, has yet to publicly announce a Windows Phone 7 hanset; although there CEO did say they had a few “big surprises” coming in the next few months. This information comes days after the company’s new chief technology officer announced that they would no longer be developing Symbian-based devices. “Android is definitely our focus, but we have not given up on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, although it had a bit slow to take off. But Windows 7 Phone is on the roadmap,” said CTO Jan Uddenfelt. We’re interested to see if Sony Ericsson can delivery a winning Windows Phone 7 device in a timely manner… let’s hope so.

UPDATE: The author of the article has since reneged on their quote. Apparently, Mr. Oded said Sony Ericsson is a Windows Phone 7 partner, not that they are actively building a device. Regardless, the company has said WP7 is “on the roadmap.” Let’s hope it gets to the factory sooner rather than later.

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Sony Ericsson spokesperson, Aldo Liguori, spoke with Buisnessweek and revealed the handset makers plans — or lack thereof – for Nokia’s Symbian mobile operating system. “We have no plans for the time being to develop any new products to the Symbian Foundation standard or operating system,” said Mr. Liguori . The remarks come on the heels of a statement by SE’s Chief Creation Officer, Rikko Sakaguchi, which explained that the company had made a “significant shift to support Android.” Sony Ericsson did indicate that that they would retain their membership in the Symbian Foundation, despite the absence of the OS from their handset pipeline.

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Publication Global Atlanta caught up with Sony Ericsson CEO, Bert Nordberg, at the grand opening of the company’s North American headquarters in Atlanta. When asked, “where do you see the phone industry going… what do you see as the next big development technology wise?” The CEO quipped, “we have some big surprises coming up in the next few months… but we never announce them in advance.” Sounds good to us. We’d love to see some high-quality Sony Ericsson hardware on American soil… delivered in a timely fashion, of course.

[Via Engadget]

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Thanks to the FCC, the user manual for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 has hit the interwebs. The device, which was first announced back in June, packs a 3″ HVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, 128 MB of internal memory, 600 MHz processor, and Android 1.6 with SE’s UX UI. The device has the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz 3G HSPA bands, which makes AT&T a likely landing spot for this little number. However, we’re starting to wonder how many mid-level Android devices can fit into AT&T’s smartphone portfolio. The PDF is live on the FCC’s website and can be downloaded directly using this link. Thoughts?

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Sony Ericsson and AT&T have announced that the Xperia X10 will be available on Ma’ Bell, beginning August 15th, for $150 on-contract. The wrap sheet on the X10 is as follows: 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 8.1 megapixel camera with LED-flash, 4-inch touchscreen display (480 x 854), 8GB ROM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a-GPS, micro-SD card slot, and a fairly heavily skinned version of Android 1.6. One-point-six? Did your gag reflex just kick in? Ours did. If you want to know what we think of the X10, you can check out our hands on from waaaaay back in November of 2009. Hit the jump for the full press release.

AT&T and Sony Ericsson Announce the Xperia™ X10

Smart meets entertaining – Sony Ericsson’s flagship Android smartphone offers an open and integrated world of communication, entertainment and social media

DALLAS and ATLANTA, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ – AT&T* and Sony Ericsson today announced a dynamic multimedia experience with the Android™ based Xperia™ X10, available August 15. The Xperia™ X10 introduces Sony Ericsson’s unique and entertainment-driven Xperia™ platform to U.S. customers in a cutting-edge, beautiful and fun package.

The Xperia™ X10 comes fully loaded with a 4-inch crystal clear touch display, superfast 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a GPS. The smartphone also features an 8.1 megapixel camera with smile detection, face recognition, autofocus and LED flash. The device comes with 8 GB of on-board memory and a 2 GB in-box memory card, with expandable memory up to 32 GB.

Sony Ericsson’s custom user experience is great for the intersection of communications and entertainment. Two signature applications, Mediascape and Timescape™, build on the Android platform to enhance the experience for users.

* Mediascape on the Xperia ™ X10 gathers music, photos, videos and content from your phone’s memory card and online, letting you browse, search, listen and share your media from one unified view. For example, view photos taken on the device as well as your Facebook® and Picasa™ web albums. Or, when listening to a favorite song on your phone, press Sony Ericsson’s infinite button to access related content about the artist pulled from the phone’s memory as well as albums, songs and video content from YouTube™ and search results from Google.
* Timescape™ is a unique communication application that automatically organizes social interactions in chronological order, leaving users free to concentrate on keeping in touch on-the-go. From Facebook® and Twitter® updates to photos, emails and text messages, a scrolling menu offers easy viewing and organization of all communications. Additionally, tap the Timescape™ infinite button to bring up and view all communications from a single person in a single place.

“Sony Ericsson has created a unique choice for our smartphone customers looking for a fun and smart device,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.

“Sony Ericsson is raising the bar for entertainment-rich phones with the launch of the Xperia ™ X10,” said Paul Hamnett, senior vice president, Sony Ericsson North America. “With the convergence of our user experience platform and the Android OS, we are bringing consumers a smartphone experience that is not only exciting, but also very refined. Following the successful global launch of the Xperia™ X10, we are pleased to partner with AT&T to launch this phone in the U.S. market.”

Pricing and Availability

The Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10 smartphone will be available in black at AT&T stores, authorized retailers and www.wireless.att.com on August 15 for $149.99 after a two-year service agreement and minimum smartphone data plan.

For the complete lineup of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.

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A reader hit up our inbox to let us know that the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, due out on AT&T, is now live on SE’s website. The Phone is a quad-band GSM and UMTS/HSPA phone that will have an 8.1 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, 360 x 640 TFT touch-screen, Bluetooth, aGPS, micro-SD card slot, and will run the Symbian OS. The phone’s dimensions are 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.5 inches and it weighs in at 3.4 ounces. The phone will be available in Cosmic Black, Galaxy Blue, Moon Silver, or a sensual Venus Ruby. The site also lists an anemic 75 MB of memory for this particular offering. Eeeeeeesh! Hit the read link and let us know what you think!

Thanks, Sayon!

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We are thinking some of you may have entirely forgot about Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X10 Android handset — we know we pretty much have. That’s not stopping it from making an official, carrier appearance in the US, however. We have been told that the Sony Ericsson X10 has finally passed through AT&T’s technical acceptance process and should be available in the “coming weeks.” We don’t have any sort of pricing, but we’d wager a $149-$199 price point with a two year agreement. Lastly, the other SE handset, the Vivaz (codenamed Monet) should be hitting the Death Star carrier as early as September.

Owners of a Sony Ericsson X10 Mini or a Mini Pro will be happy to know that the folks at xda-developers have been able to achieve root on these two Android devices. The root requires some familiarity with adb and terminal commands and apparently takes advantage of the same exploit used to root the DROID X, Devour, and other Android handsets. Hit the read link for the detailed instructions and head over toe xda-devs to link up with other SE owners. Happy Rooting!

[Via xda-developers]

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The Sony Ericsson Vivaz with AT&T friendly 3G on board received the FCC rubber stamp of approval back in February. The handset has remained incognito until Thursday when the entire docket of FCC documents was released to the public. These documents include references and images that confirm the handset was indeed slated for AT&T. Given the time lapse since announcement and FCC approval, the future launch of this handset on the nation’s number two carrier is questionable. Until we hear otherwise from Sony Ericsson or AT&T, we will consider the prospect of an AT&T-branded as possible but not probable.

[Via Unwired View]

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Feeling the Xperia X3 too small and the Xperia X10 too large, yesterday Sony Ericsson announced what we like to think of as the Goldilocks handset in the Xperia X8. Better known as the Shakira, the X8 comes with a 3″ HVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, 128MB of internal memory, 600MHz processor, and Android 1.6 with UX UI. We can’t say for sure if the Xperia X8 will arrive on U.S. soil, but the fact that there is a quad-band version with the 850 and 1900MHz bands of UMTS/HSDPA means it’s a definite possibility.

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Rumors are starting to fly about a new Sony Ericsson offering code-named “Julie.” The new handset will be a Windows Phone 7 device and is reported to have a 1GHz processor (possibly dual-core), 4″ touchscreen, and fully QWERTY keyboard. Julie’s girlish figure will be similar to that of the Xperia X10, while the estimated release date for the mystery-maiden is the end 2010.

[Via WMPoweruser.com]

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Sony Ericsson’s been having a really tough go of it, but it seems to really think that Android is the solution to all of its woes. Recently two of its upcoming Android-based handsets leaked out, so let’s tackle them left to right, shall we? The white handset on the left is said to be known as the Shakira, sized between the full-blown Xperia X10 and the Xperia Mini, and might just come to market this fall as the Xperia 10 Mid (ugh). And then there’s the strange QWERTY slider on the right. Apart from giving a shoutout to the form factor of the HTC Shift, this curious device looks to have a display in excess of 5″ and is said to run on Android 2.1. What do we think, gang? Do you think with handsets like these Sony Ericsson can start making some serious cash, or will its trials and tribulations continue until it starts thinking out of the box?

Read [Shakira] Read [QWERTY]

Any burning questions you’ve ever had about the upgrade path for the XPERIA X10 family of products can now be put to rest, as Sony Ericsson has finally gone public with its intentions. As of Q4 2010, all three phones — the X10, X10 mini and X10 mini Pro — will be upgraded to Android 2.1 aka “Eclair”. Not only that, but after the update, the X10′s 8.1 megapixel camera will be able to record videos in HD. Throw in enhancements to the Timescape and Mediascape applications, as well as DLNA, support and you’d almost think Sony Ericsson genuinely believes it’s going to win over the hearts and minds of Android lovers by updating what will then be a year-old product that doesn’t even support multi-touch. But we digress…

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Opera Mini launched on the iPhone a mere few weeks ago and the Apple handset has already has taken the top spot as the device with the most Opera Mini users, as measured by number of installs, in the US. The iPhone ousted BlackBerry, the previous reigning champ in the US, and is reportedly well ahead of its mobile competitor from Canada. Globally, the iPhone is in third place and is surrounded by Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets which occupy 19 of the remaining top 20 slots. Not only a US-based phenomena, the iPhone is also top dog in the UK and has a strong presence in Australia, Korea, Canada, Germany, and Japan. Though impressive, these initial numbers may be boosted artificially by iPhone owners who download the app merely because it is new and noteworthy. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues as the novelty wears off.

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