Nikolaus Scheurer Sony Mobile’s Director of Marketing and Planning was interviewed recently by GSMArena. This interview reveled some interesting tidbits to those who read it. I am gonna skip through to the interesting parts. First regarding flagships Mr Scheurer basically admits that The Xperia S will be the the flagship for six months with another coming out in the second half of the year.

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I’m basically implying there will be a new flagship earlier than this because that’s how the market is, right? The Xperia S will be an absolute flagship product, even a half year in and hopefully as well a year from now, we will drive this as an absolute aspiration of the product and it will be portrayed like a hero to our brand. But at the same time you will see product refreshes, new technology, new services, even more Sony going forward.

They have realized that 1 year is too long to come out with a new flagship and he further goes into how this new flagship will come about being a design refresh or same design with new and higher specs to differentiate.

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I’m not ruling it out, but there could be something that also expresses the same design philosophy in a different way. I mean, even in half a year, components will change, technical capabilities will change, maybe even the perception of an end consumer in the top end…what you value more. What design traits you value more, services, performance of the device, We want to bring something new to the market.

He reiterates that they promised and will deliver Ice Cream Sandwich to 2011 Xperia Devices and implies that all devices coming out from summer should have it right of the gate.

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But it doesn’t matter because we promised, and this is what will stay true, is that from the summer on we will upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Ice Cream Sandwich to Star roll-out in April.

we really will upgrade all of our portfolio based on Android to Ice Cream Sandwich. So we’re basically starting now in April, to roll that out so every single Android device, back down to the Xperia base from Sony Ericsson, but as well as Live with Walkman based on Android, will see the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. That is a reassurance for a consumer of a Sony Xperia smartphone: the upgrade will come.

Full Interview can be read here: Sony NXT in detail: Interview with Nikolaus Scheurer

Rumored Specifications

1. 1GHz dual-core processor (most likely ST-Ericsson NoveThor U8500 chipset)
2. 3.7-inch (480 x 854 resolution) display
3. 5MP rear camera
4. front facing VGA camera
5. Shoot 720p video
6. Wi Fi Direct
7. Comes with smart tags

Picture From Website

Previously Leaked Pictures

Source: AndroidAdvices

Sony Xperia™ P Specification Overview

1. 4′TFT Display powered by Whitemagic™ technology
2. 16 million colours, 960 x 540 pixels
3. 1 GHz ST-E U8500 NovaThor Dual Core processor
4. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
5. Internal phone storage: 16GB (up to 13GB user-accessible memory)
6. RAM: 1GB
7. 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and Auto focus
8. HD video recording (1080p)
9. Aluminium Body

Networks

10. GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
11. UMTS HSPA 850, 900, 1900, 2100

Sony Xperia™ P Product Page

Sony Xperia™ U Specification Overview

1. 3.5? scratch-resistant TFT
2. 16 million colours, 854 x 480 pixels
3. 1 GHz ST-E U8500 NovaThor Dual Core processor
4. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
5. VGA front facing camera
6. 5 megapixel camera with auto focus
7. Exchangeable bottom caps, light that changes color to suit themes, photos, music

Sony Xperia™ U Product Page

Sony Mobile Communications or just Sony will announce some new Xperia’s soon. The Sony Xperia P & Xperia U should be announced soon most likely at MWC 2012. I present to you some details of each phone below.

Sony Xperia P

1. Model Number: LT22i (Nypon)
2. 4″ HD Reality Display, LED back-lit
3. Whitemagic™ technology
4. VGA front facing camera
5. Full aluminium body

Sony Xperia U

1. Model Number: ST25i (Kumquat)
2. 3.5′ HD Reality Display, 854×480 pixels, LED back-lit
3. 3D surround sound
4. VGA front facing camera
5. Exchangeable bottom caps, light that changes color to suit themes, photos, music

Last year Sony Corporation has succeeded in commercializing WhiteMagic™ technology – an LCD module for digital cameras that utilizes the newly-developed RGBW-method. You should know that traditional LCD screens have three pixels – Red-Green-Blue (RGB). The new technology WhiteMagic™ incorporates a LCD module that adds a fourth white (W) sub-pixel to the RGB pixels. In the result we have unique combination of an ultra-bright screen and great power efficiency. WhiteMagic™ automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen to surrounding light.

Originally WhiteMagic™ was developed for digital cameras, but Sony successfully used it in LCD screens for smartphones. The first smartphone that feature this technology will be Xperia P also known as Nypon LT22i.

The European Commission has approved the sales of Ericsson’s share in joint venture Sony Ericsson to Sony as of January 26, 2012. This paves the way for upcoming phones to be branded under the ‘Sony’ badge/ logotype. It has been roughly 11 years since the joint venture and it has been a interesting experience with models such as T68, K750, P900. Sony Ericsson is no more and should be phased out by June 2012.

Some days ago was leaked image of new Sony smartphone ST25i Kumquat. Yet there is no much information about this device. Probably ST25i will get final name Xperia U. According to the recently leaked price info table, ST25i Kumquat will cost about €262 and should be released in April. By the way, here is the full leaked price table:

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/.

Xperia™ S has 4.3″ 16, 000,000 colour TFT 1280×720 pixels touchscreen, a 12 megapixel camera with Sony Exmor R™ sensor featuring 1080p video recording.

Xperia S™ will be powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor (MSM8260 chipset) and 32GB of internal memory. The phone support Android 2.3 at launch. Upgrade to Android 4.0 will be possible in 2nd half of 2012.

Xperia™ S weighs 144 grams and sizes 128 x 64 x 10.6 mm. The phone will be availble from 2nd quater 2012 in two colours: Black and Silver.

Official press-release will coming soon. Also today Sony Ericsson shows some very nice accessories.

Picture Source: The Verge

Sony and Sony Ericsson will announced Xperia™ S and Xperia™ Ion devices. The Xperia S is the Nozomi that we have seen thus far. Xperia™ Ion has a 4.6 inch display.

Update

At this moment it is unclear which model correlates to Xperia™ Ion , but from the screen size we may come to the conclusion that it is LT28at. But it is not, if we take the info we got on the brand name placement and also that the LT28at was rumoured to have a 5 inch display. Our Source went further on to say that the Xperia™ Ion has brand name “Sony” below the screen while LT26i (Nozomi) has name “Sony” upside the screen. Still this is unclear if the phones will have both Sony Ericsson and Sony branding on them. The gist is that we will see two phones being revealed On Monday. Also smart things are expected to be announced such as a watch, wireless headset. We can’t wait for the announcement, just 2 days to go.

Update 2
Sony Ericsson Xperia™ Ion is apparently AT&T branded. Model is indeed LT28at. We will know all tomorrow.

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