Sony Ericssons new Android Phone, the Walkman W8

In order to survive in today’s market, you cannot simply target high end smartphone users who need the latest and greatest. Sony Ericsson, traditionally a company who offered a wide range of Symbian based phones has seen its bottom line take a hit as of recent, due to the fact that with their transition towards Android, they haven’t had a phone offering for those who wish for a little less. Now the company is looking to change that by releasing the Walkman W8. If the phone looks surprisingly familiar to you, that’s because the phone was previously released under the name of Xperia X8. Now with the company moving forward with much higher end phones like the Xperia Play and Arc, the company hopes that the fleet of Xperia X8’s that the company once produced can help it capture a different market share. The Walkman W8 which comes in many new fun colors has the following specs:

• Android 2.1
• 3-inch, 320 x 480 touchscreen
• 600MHz processor
• 168MB of RAM
• 3G and Wifi
• 3.2 Megapixel camera

The new Walkman phone is currently announced on Sony Ericssons German page though we assume that the phone will make its way to the states as well. No price has been announced though you can hit the jump for some additional pictures. What do you guys think though? Great phone for those need something a little simpler, yet still want access to the Android market?

[Via Sony Ericsson]

Sony Starts Shipping Xperia X8, Still Sports Android 1.6

Sony Ericsson has started to ship the Xperia X8, the smaller, less beefy version of the Xperia X10. The unit includes what you would expect with GPS, 3G, Wi-Fi and touchscreen. Less stellar is its 600mhz processor and 3.2 fix focus camera, but then again, its not meant to be a flagship unit and not everybody cares for all the bells and whistles out there. Currently, this unit ships with Android 1.6, but an update to Android 2.1 is expected for later in the year. Although I’m not too clear about the contract based price of this phone sense those shift weekly with provider promotions, you can pick this unit up from Sony unlocked with no contract for $300.

Hit the jump for a video overview of the Xperia X8 which will give you a pretty good feel of what Sonys take is on the smart phone.

Sony Xperia Won’t Gain Android 2.1 Till Late October

Sony Ericsson continues to be one troubled division, seeming to be schizophrenic. There are times where the company gets it and decides to get into the smartphone war with a lower price to gain some shares and even abandon dead formats. Then, during the same big launch, Sony releases its Xperia X10 and Xperia X10 Mini Pro with Android 1.6, already a dated OS. Now, after promising a September release date,  Sony wont be giving its users Android 2.1 till late October. This of course wouldn’t be as bad if Android 2.1 hadn’t been out for months, but not only has 2.1 been available all summer, but 2.2 is currently out as well. Sony needs to realize that the smartphone market is moving fast and every other week there is a new device coming out that wants to be king of the hill. Sony Ericsson, who has not had any real presence in the US market, cannot afford to enter the market with outdated software. This then brings us to the point that this is a software upgrade. All Sony needs to do is to give Xperia users new build to download and they will gain all the new features. Now I understand that there needs to be engineering and coding to make sure the build works with all of the Xperia features and layouts but this is work that should have been done months ago. In order for Sony to truly compete, they cannot play catch up with everybody else. They need be aggressive, both in their pricing, marketing, and support of their smartphone lineup.

[Via Sony Ericsson Blog]