Just over a week ago, a series of leaked images revealed several handsets from Sony Ericsson’s upcoming lineup. First was the XPERIA Shakira, which has recently been officially renamed to the XPERIA X8 (the midsized phone in the series, between the XPERIA X10 and the XPERIA X10 mini). The other device, which was originally rumored to be an Android handset that supposedly uses Walkman technology, was later confirmed to a straightforward Walkman handset, the W150 TeaCake.
Last on the list of these devices is a massive 5.5 inch touch screen smart phone which, like the TeaCake was said to be an Android device. While we are certainly hoping that it would eventually be running Android 2.2 Froyo, there is also a possibility that this may be the upcoming Windows Phone 7 handset that Sony Ericsson has been working on.
Recently, it has been let known that the new WP7 device from SE will be codenamed Julie and that the smart phone will feature a slide out keyboard. This matches the look of the supposed Android device. While it is hard to determine at this point whether the large touch screen smart phone uses WP7 or Android, it is certain that Sony Ericsson is working on a Windows handset.
Of course, it will be a bit of a shock for die hard Sony fans to know that there will eventually be Sony Ericsson smart phone that has access to the Microsoft Xbox Live Games service which is the direct competitor of the Sony Playstation Network. But since the PSN has not delved into the mobile market, there is little conflict of interest for the two companies.
The announcement of the Julie smart phone also adds a second device in the list of upcoming type 2 chassis Windows Phone 7 devices; the first being the LG Panther. The type two chassis is for touch screen handsets that have physical QWERTY keyboards –other announced WP7 devices are said to be using the type 1 basic touch screen chassis.
Tags: google-android, LG-Panther, Microsoft, Sony-Ericsson, Sony-Ericsson-Julie, Sony-Ericsson-W150-TeaCake, Sony-Ericsson-XPERIA-X8, Windows-Phone-7