Sony brings Xperia X10 to AT&T, something Smarter is Sony

Sony over the weekend teased us that something smarter is coming. Our guess was the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and that’s exactly what Sony is introducing to the United States. Details on the phone are a little slim in the sense that we know the entire hardware, but we don’t know which version of Android it will be shipping with and there is no mention of the specifics on Sony’s own site, other than OS Android. You might wonder why I mentioned in the title that the something smarter is Sony. The reason is simple, the phone is priced at $129 with a two year AT&T contract. That is a fantastic price for the phone, but more importantly, Sony knows that the $199 price range is currently way crowded by brands everybody knows. Palm tried the $199 with the Palm Pre and they got destroyed because of the iPhone and others. The same is true for Sony; at $199, there is a huge selection for customers. So instead of just being another $199 phone, they are aiming to offer a great phone for a lower price to set themselves apart. Also, currently on AT&T, there are not many Android-based phones so for those looking for something other than an iPhone or Blackberry, this puts Sony at a nice position. Well played Sony. More details on this as Sony makes them available.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Coming to AT&T Soon?

As always when it comes to Sony Ericsson, there is good news mixed with bad news. The good news is that not only has Sony Ericsson been doing much better than years before, but that they may finally get a decent presence in the United States. If everything goes according to plan, in late August/early September, Sony and AT&T will be partnering to bring to the States the much raved Xperia X10. As Engadget reports: “It’ll cost independent dealers $345 per unit (retail pricing is anyone’s guess)” so there is no real price point out there. The other negative they seem to point out is that the Xperia X10 would be shipping with Android 1.6 which is just pure garbage compared to the now 2.2 Froyo.

I’m personally not sure if this is true or not, mostly because Sony has stated that it’s planning on bringing the newer Android build by Q4 at the exact time when the Xperia X10 would be launching in the States. But if we take the negative news for fact, this can be devastating for Sony from the reviewers’ stand point and Sony can’t use the bad press for their launch because of the fact that they don’t have any real following or fan base here in the phone market. The biggest reason is that Sony won’t simply be competing with the undisputed king, the iPhone, but it has to take on the everyday growing portfolio of Android phones and there are plenty of good phones for the consumer to pick through. With HTC and Motorola (and soon LG) beating each other over the head, the much anticipated Blackberry Torch with the new Blackberry software has basically been shrugged off by every review site and Blackberry is a brand with loyal users. Sony in the States would be starting off from scratch so a lackluster software offering would never make up for the phone, no matter how good the hardware and quality is that the device itself holds. So to Sony, please make sure that your software is up to snuff or hold off the release. Seriously.