Sony Ericsson Shows Off First Android Device

• By Tricia Duryee
• On 2:00 pm EST, Tuesday November 3, 2009

*Sony Ericsson* unveiled the Xperia X10 today, the handset-makers' first device running Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG - News) Android. The phone is part of the company's smartphone family of devices, which originally ran Windows Mobile and had a slide-out physical keyboard. While the X10 will have neither of those attributes, it has two new additional software overlays called "Timescape" and "Mediascape." Release.

Although struggling handset maker announced the phone's specifications today, the phone won't be released until sometime much later in the first half of 2010. Much like Motorola's Blur technology, Sony (NYSE: SNE - News) Ericsson (NasdaqGS: ERIC - News) said Timescape will manage all your conversations from Facebook, Twitter, emails and texts in the same place. In addition, Mediascape helps you get music, photos and videos from your phone, YouTube and PlayNow, its own storefront. In practice, this means users can press the new "infinite button" to aggregate all your interactions with one person into one view, and face recognition technology allows you associate faces in any picture with your social phonebook.

The announcement of the Xperia X10 provides further momentum for the Google Android platform, however, it may not help Sony Ericsson given that it will not hit stores until after the holiday season.

Engadget got its hands on an early build of the device and was skeptical that Sony Ericsson will be able to deliver on all of its promises. At the minimum, the phone's high-powered Qualcomm (NasdaqGS: QCOM - News) Snapdragon may drain the battery. Engadget's Vladislav Savov writes: "We got the gist of what SE was trying to do here, but there's absolutely no way to evaluate whether the company has succeeded when usability was this low. With its Donut not even half baked, SE faces quite a challenge in trying to deliver its promised release in the first quarter of 2010."

Sony Ericsson's Head of Application Planning for the Xperia X10 Erica Kato Marcus walks through both Timescape and Mediascape in a video, and while it all looks pretty cool and magical, it's really unclear what's going on. Here's a look:

 

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