Details like, for instance, the camera resolutions were left unmentioned. Previous rumors have said it would carry a 12-megapixels camera together with the front camera. The faster processor is supposed to offer it 1,080-pixel video recording. The phone may ship with the outdated operating system Android 2.3.5, although it would have a new-looking version of the Timescape interface of Sony Ericsson.

If Sony will keep what it did this year, its new phone Xperia Arc HD might be unveiled at CES in January and would ship within other few months. If the phone will not be available by that time, it will have to wait until late February, at the Mobile World Congress.

The move will finally limit the functionality of the app. The channel is supposed to kick out the My Apps section on the home page of the Market and determine users to bring it up by using a contextual menu. Objections already exist, some users qualifying it as “presumptive” and saying that they would prefer to check their own applications instead of visiting a branded channel.

One of them called the initiative “a little arrogant” and said that it would be better to get it as an extra function included in the menu or even placed on the screen instead of replacing a defined feature. He added that customers should have been asked what they wanted.

The new feature should already be live but it depends on individual carriers, although Sony claimed most people would get it soon.

This step is considered a premiere for an Android-based phone maker and is supposed to represent an eventual splintering of the platform. It does not require separate downloads, but creates an isolated area of the store and therefore could encourage other phone makers to provide general-purpose applications intentionally limited to their own handsets. The implementation of Sony Ericsson’s channel increases the time necessary to check for application updates and this way impedes functionality.

It is known that windows Phone 7 also has its own store included in another store, but this does not affect the interface when bringing in the custom store.

The new phone is expected to be NFC-capable, in order to use the Japanese FeliCa NFC payment system, as well as a TV-tuner compatible with the Japanese digital over-the-air 1Seg standard. An infrared port is to be added too. There are two versions of the new phone. One is a GSM version to be used on the NTT DoCoMo, while the other is a CDMA version to be used on the KDDI network.

The handset would otherwise share the same characteristics as its predecessor, the Xperia arc. It would be powered by a 1GHz single-core Snapdragon SOC processor and would have a 4.2-inch display as well as an 8.1-megapixel Exmor R camera on its rear side. The launch is expected in Japan this year, between May and June. The phone is supposed to be used only in Japan.

A Facebook page as well as a Canadian product page for the device have been launched.

The new phone will be powered by Android 2.3 and will use a four-inch, 854×480 display with slide-out PSP-style controls including two shoulder buttons and optical analog ‘sticks’. It is equipped with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and has a five-megapixel camera. Its price is still unknown, but it is supposed that Sony Ericsson would officially reveal the handset at the Mobile World Congress show.

A lot of details related to the phone are already made public. The slider has a four-inch screen with a 854×480 resolution, slide-out PSP-style controls including optical analog sticks as well as two shoulder buttons. The performance of the device would not be as high as for the NGP and would depend on a second-generation Snapdragon processor at 1GHz. The device also contains a five-megapixel camera.

A dedicated PlayStation application is the central piece. It is represented by the Games icon displayed on the home screen. All the games qualifying under the PlayStation Suite program are aggregated by the portal. Many of them have a guaranteed minimum performance and can work with the hardware controls. As initial titles, there will be PS1 ports, but PSP games and some original titles could also be included.

The release dates are not known, but it is believed that Sony Ericsson would have the device ready soon, probably in March.

The introduction of the Xperia Play is considered a milestone for Android, because gaming has been usually the weak link compared to the iPhone. Google’s platform has been used on devices with different processors, control schemes and resolutions. The lack of a consistent platform has forced Android game developers to limit their titles to a handful of devices or to make lowest common denominator applications susceptible to work on as many devices as possible. It is not necessarily true that the Xperia Play and PlayStation Suite would challenge iOS devices with increased technical ability, but they could provide an authentic point of reference for developers of Android applications.

The device is the first touchscreen-based phone from Sony Ericsson that uses the Walkman brand and will keep its focus on music. It uses the same four-corner user interface as the X10 mini and other Android devices. The entry-level hardware has a 2.6-inch LCD with a resolution of 320×240, EDGE connectivity and a two-megapixel camera.

Sony Ericsson is expected to announce its plans for a release of the Yendo in the United States. It is expected to launch the device in the United Kingdom and other markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

The results are also favorable to Samsung, as the Korean company gained a little amount of share. At the same time, LG and Nokia were falling rapidly. The worst case is Nokia’s as it dropped to only 32.4 percent, although it has sold 110.4 million phones. LG dropped from 10.6 percent a year ago to only 8.3 percent now, due to its weak smartphone lineup.

It is notorious that the iPhone and Android were the main factors in smartphone growth. Competition was more acerb in North America, with Motorola and HTC challenging the iPhone. Google had more influence in Western Europe through Samsung and HTC, while Motorola’s cheaper Android handsets, like the original Milestone (Droid) and the Backflip, invaded Latin America. The region of Asia and the Pacific showed lower incomes, although Samsung prospered in its native Korea. Apple’s incursion in Japan was in a way muted in favor of local phone designers.

The future is estimated to be in the hands of some companies like Google, Apple and Research in Motion, as smartphones are supposed to drive growth until 2014 at least. Estimations of IDC show a growth of 55 percent just the next year.

The company has made a gross margin at 30 percent, nearly twice as much as last year, when many devices were only basic and media phones, which were competing against similar devices from Nokia or smartphones with more advanced features from Research in Motion, Apple and Android partners of Google. Sony Ericsson shipped the X10 to the United States this summer and began selling Android-based devices in China. Smartphone sales in these countries were previously limited to Windows Mobile phones with poor selling figures.

Due to its recent decline, Sony Ericsson has seen Apple overtaking it for the first time in absolute market share. Apple’s iPhone has outsold the smartphone mix of Sony Ericsson for some time and could have sold even more phones if there were no sellouts of the iPhone 4.

In order to regain lost terrain, Sony Ericsson has declared its intention of being the top-selling Android platform. It will consequently have high-end phones available. Its CEO Bert Nordberg has promised a big surprise to come in the near future, which could be an Android PlayStation phone. There were some rumors which have placed its launching early in 2011 with Android 3.0, a slider design with physical controls in the PSP Go style and a dedicated section of the Android Market.

Symbian is currently a minority of Sony Ericsson’s mix; the departure would, however, be a considerable wound to Symbian. This has been recast as an open-source project; losing the phone maker would leave Nokia as virtually the only phone designer using the operating system. Moreover, the other major partner, Samsung, is already downplaying Symbian in favor of its own Bada and even Android. However, Nokia is partly moving away too, as the N9 and other Nseries handsets will run on the manufacturer’s own MeeGo.

The official Sony Ericsson position still underlines three separate platforms.

Nordberg declined to name the current leader of Android sales, but his company has as direct rivals Motorola, HTS and Samsung. At present, Sony Ericsson has a more limited selection of Android devices than its competitors, its sales being limited to the XPERIA X10 and X10 mini, as well as X10 mini pro. The next Android phone of the company is the X8 and has not yet arrived on the market.

A separate report of another analyst suggests that the London-based firm has been slow enough to engage the smartphone market, compared to its competition. The transition had the result of a reduced market share related to the overall mobile market during the second quarter of this year. Meanwhile, its rivals Samsung and HTC have continued to grow.