by Mark Bonnett

As we trundle on merrily through the year, the battle to be the king of mobile phones is being waged as fiercely as ever. As one of the big five names in that war, Sony Ericsson have a lot at stake. But how are they going to wow us this year? How do they plan to win the battle for 2008?

Sony Ericsson - the story of the year so far

As the year started, Sony Ericsson hit the ground running, and got off to a fabulous start with the double-header of the K850i and W910i, both mobiles phones that set a new benchmark for any that followed them. They clearly laid out two of the big areas that Sony Ericsson were going to attack: mobiles phones with Cyber-Shot cameras, and mobile phones with Walkman music built in. The Sony Ericsson K850i, with a 5 megapixel, Cyber-Shot camera set out to be the best camera phone money can buy, and whilst it hasn’t quite managed it (the Nokia N82 just trumps it), it’s a mighty fine mobile phone!

However, the W910i wasn’t to be the only music phone that Sony Ericsson pinned their hopes on in the past few months, as they also released the frankly stunning W960i, a touchscreen smartphone that took all the fabulous power of their earlier P1i smartphone, and added the amazing Walkman 3 music player. So, now Sony Ericsson’s customers had the opportunity to get a proper, full-on smartphone, that was also a proper, full-on music mobile phone. Or, to put it another way, if you’re in the market for a music phone that lets you add any software you want, that will do more than other mobile phones, and that will really blow your mind, the W960i can’t be beaten.

Yet.

But it soon will be, because Sony Ericsson have some even more astounding mobile phones up their sleeves…

Sony Ericsson - the future…

So, what can we expect from the Japanese/Swedish joint venture for the rest of 2008? Well, it goes without saying that they’ll be continuing their assault on the camera phone and music phone markets, as new Cyber-Shot and Walkman mobile phones are definitely on their way. In the camera phone camp, we have a new model, codenamed by Sony Ericsson as ‘Shiho’, which will up the megapixel count to, allegedly, 7.2MP, and throw in optical zoom and face recognition, on top of all the current Cyber-Shot goodness. If true, that’ll be one hell of a phone! As for music phones, there’s a mind-blower coming, even though no-one knows what it’s called yet, but there’s one phrase being bandied about that is alleged to sum it up: ‘iPhone-Killer’…

As well as those existing product ranges, Sony Ericsson are also adding two entirely new product lines to their portfolio. First up is the G-Series, a new range of what is, basically, smartphones for the masses. So, in essence, take the power of a UIQ smartphone (like the P1i or W960i), and its touchscreen, then put it all in the body of a normal mobile phone. They’re smartphones for people to nervous or bewildered to use high-end smartphones, and they look set to sell by the bucket load. And then, finally, there’s the new X-Series. The Xperia mobile phones, with the flagship phone, the X1, due to be released before the end of the year. These are going to be the REALLY top-end phones, smartphones like no other, built on Windows Mobile, Symbian UIQ and (ten pounds says they do one eventually, even though they haven’t announced it) Google Android. In the Xperia range, there looks set to be one based on the same operating system as that new Walkman phone that Sony Ericsson have up their sleeves, and… well, if that Walkman phone is set to be an iPhone-Killer, then the new Xperia version may possibly end up being the best mobile phone ever made!

About the author: Expert on mobile phones and mobile broadband, having worked in the industry for over 7 years.