For a number of smartphone buyers, today’s the day.
The long awaited white iPhone 4 finally comes to market after nine long months and Sony Ericsson’s dynamic duo of Xperia arc and Xperia PLAY also become available. These are key product releases for both Apple and Sony Ericsson that are expected to generate a lot of buzz, move units and get people to form a few lines.
Apple’s white iPhone 4 ($659 for 16GB or $779 for 32GB) has been considered an almost mythical product. Originally slated for release in July 2010 together with the black variant, it suffered a number of production setbacks. Creating a white version of the iPhone 4 has proven to be a challenging undertaking for Apple, UV management issues have been charged as one of the probable causes that the white models took this long to make it to market.
The white iPhone 4 has finally arrived and it’s beautiful,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “We appreciate everyone who has waited patiently while we’ve worked to get every detail right.”
The white iPhone 4 is important to Apple right now because for the first time since 2007, Apple doesn’t seem to be slated to release a new iPhone in the summer. Some reports expect the next iPhone to come in the Fall or even later so an new colour iPhone 4 may just be enough to sustain interest until the next model comes to market even if it is identical to existing black iPhone 4’s.
For Sony Ericsson, the Xperia arc defines their high-end Android smartphone offering. The arc ($99.99 on a 3-year Rogers plan) is ultra thin at just 8.7mm at its thinnest part and has an extra wide 4.2” multi-touch screen. The Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine is technology straight out of Sony’s high end HDTVs. The Xperia arc is aimed at the multimedia-savvy user who puts a premium on the ability to make content and share it. All pictures and videos can be played back on an HDTV via the built in HDMI-connector.
The Xperia PLAY ($99.99 on a 3-year Rogers plan) is an even more interesting development in smartphones. It is an Android 2.3 device and just like the Xperia arc offers a fast processor and a large display but this is actually a whole new paradigm in Android devices. The PLAY is the long awaited PlaystionPortable smartphone or PSP phone. It features slide-out controllers but more importantly, it ties in to Sony’s robust PlayStation ecosystem of downloadable games and content. It fills the void of the recently discontinued PSP Go handheld gaming device and is aimed at the Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch as mobile gaming Internet touch device.
The Xperia PLAY is also a sign of things to come as it is the first PlayStation Certified device which may lead to a whole new ecosystem of PlayStation enabled Android devices that download games and play them back over the Android OS.
- More iPhone coverage
- More Android coverage
- More smartphone coverage
