Four new Xperia smartphones coming

Sony Ericsson expects to launch the Xperia arc, Xperia Play and Xperia Neo during Q1, whilst the Xperia Pro will launch at some point in Q2. However, Sony Ericsson’s Chief Executive, Bert Nordberg, has revealed that in addition to these, the company plans to announce at least four new handsets by the end of the year. Whilst no details were given, he confirmed that all eight devices will be made available in the US.

Nordberg expects that new handset launches will increasingly be sold in the US first in an effort to increase market share. The US currently represents 45% of the Android market currently. He is targeting a long-term global Android market share of 25 percent, up from 14 percent currently.

The market has changed. We see a lot of our products being rolled out in the U.S. first, or in parallel when we roll it out on the global market, which is a change for this company. It has always come later in the U.S. previously. That’s a change which required us to invest,” Nordberg said.

To build market share the company is investing heavily in software developers both in the US and China. The company has tripled development staff in California to 300 in the past year whilst those in Beijing are now at 1,600, up by 60 percent.

He also went on to confirm that the Xperia Play will launch in April in the US, whilst the Chinese launch will follow three months later. All eight devices are expected to be available in China through the W-CDMA network of China United Network Communications during 2011.

Businessweek

XPERIA X10 to get Gingerbread in Q2

Whoa! Now this was a pleasant surprise, wasn't it?

Rikard Skogberg at the Sony Ericsson Product Blog today confirmed that the Sony Ericsson X10 will receive a Gingerbread update . The update will be available in the end of Q2 / early Q3 this year. Only X10 will receive the 2.3 update, not the minis or X8.

Skogberg wrote that the reason behind this upcoming update is that Sony Ericsson listens to its clients requests. On the changes that Gingerbread would bring, Mr. Skogberg had this to say: "In short, we plan to bring similar software and functionality to Xperia X10 as we have in our new 2011 Xperia smartphones. Our ambition is to provide the majority of functionality of the Gingerbread platform, as well as the Sony Ericsson specific User Experience and features."
Also some current software functions will disappear. The camera app will get the standard Gingerbread UI, Mediascape will be replaced by the newest Sony Ericsson Android media widgets, included in the Arc, Neo and Play. The Sony Ericsson Backup and Restore app will be lost since Gingerbread doesn't support it.

Source