sony ericsson mobile

The launch of the Xperia Play was announced at the Mobile World Progress (for non tech heads, this is the last night of the proms for mobile phone) in February 2011, however it was already hotly anticipated before the launch, with many waiting for the arrival of the PlayStation phone. It is anticipated that the phone will be available for purchase throughout North America and Europe in March 2011.

In terms of platforms and functionality the Xperia Play is in a class of its own. It has Google’s award winning Android operating system, (Android, Gingerbread 2.3) and the phone is by the successful Sony Ericsson mobile phone developers. But what makes the Xperia Play special is that it has been developed in partnership with the PlayStation Corporation. This means that not only is the phone highly sophisticated in terms of Smartphones, it is also pretty sophisticated in terms of hand held gaming systems and could definitely give the Nintendo Dual Screen a run for its money. It is inevitable that when three giants of their respective internet, gaming and mobile phone worlds get together on a project that it is going to be surrounded by a lot of interest and anticipation.

The unique selling point of course is that the phone is able to download games from a Sony Corporation Suite of applications which have been developed by some of the largest names in gaming. The design of the phone has definitely been thought of with the gamer in mind and feels very like the ‘real thing’. However this has been achieved without losing any of the functionality of the phone which is of extremely high specification. The hype for the launch also surrounds the potential for a huge range of games with the added wow factor of being able to play online from your pocket. Assassin’s Creed, one of the most popular PlayStation titles on the train on the way to work would make many a gamer relish the journey.

Whether not releasing the price of the games in advance of the launch is a marketing ploy or not, it is working and is causing lots of questions in this industry. It also appears to be the fly in the ointment for many gamers? The demographics of interest in the phone is pertinent, to be an add-on to a mobile phone, do games have to be within the pocket money bracket? This is doubtful given the current cost of PSP games, which apparently the Xperia Play will rival. Can games be purchased without a contract? This is yet to be made clear by the company. The impact of the arrival of the, also hotly anticipated, PSP2 is not yet clear. Though it would be imagined that the brains of the internet age know what they are doing.

Whilst the HTC Desire has cornered a lot of the market, and the iPhone brand precedes itself, we are yet to see whether the Xperia Play is able to obtain its share of the market. This may be down to pricing policy or it may be down to fads. Yet it will be an interesting tableau of innovation.

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