I reported several days ago that AT&T was likely to launch Sony Ericsson's flagship Android smartphone, the Xperia X10, in the coming weeks, and since then, Sony Ericsson and AT&T announced that the Xperia X10 will launch on August 15th for $149.99 with a new two-year contract. Interestingly though, the phone is already being advertised on Sony Style for $129.99 with a new contract.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has many of the same features of today's top-of-the-line Android smartphones. A possible upgrade to the American variant of the phone seems to be 8GB of onboard memory (up from 1GB), but will still ship with Android 1.6 installed on the device, just like at the original launch. This will likely limit the device's appeal to many, but will likely receive an update to Android 2.1 in late Q3.
However, at a time when even low-end Android phones are shipping with Android 2.1, one has to wonder what is keeping Sony from installing Android 2.1 on their device, and why they aren't doing more when this is their top-of-the-line Android handset.
AndroidandMe writes that "at the rate SE is moving, we wouldn’t expect to see Froyo running on the XPERIA X10 any time before 2011. The SONY Ericsson XPERIA X10 may not be able to compete head-to-head with the Samsung Captivate, but at $149 the X10 may be able to give the cheaper HTC Aria a run for its money."
AndroidGuys shares a similar sentiment, saying that "even with an outdated Android 1.6 OS, it should still be quite an attractive buy for folks looking to save a little cash."
Other Sources: AndroidandMe, Android Central, AndroidGuys
Image from AndroidandMe
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