Sony Ericsson P990i UMTS Smartphone Intro
Bluetooth 10 Oct 2005

Introduction

Sony Ericsson unveils UMTS P990i smartphone

October 10, 2005 – Sony Ericsson emphasised its continued commitment to Symbian OS today with the announcement of its next generation smartphone to the global development community. The P990i will be the first commercially available smartphone to adopt the enhanced Symbian OS version 9.1 and UIQ 3 software platform.

This flagship UMTS smartphone is Wi-Fi enabled, has a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus and features a new hardware keyboard beneath the flip-down keypad. The phone will start shipping during Q1 of 2006.

The P990i is the next in a line of successful Sony Ericsson smartphones - the P800, P900i and P910i – and is based on the same proven concept and recognisable form factor. All have been popular with users, operators and software developers thanks to their powerful productivity features. Operator feedback and download statistics from the Sony Ericsson Application Shop have shown that consumers, both business and personal, are interested in using their smartphones to the fullest potential. The average revenue per user (ARPU) can be as high as four to five times that of more traditional voice-centric mobile phones.

To ensure a large proportion of applications are available on the new Symbian and UIQ software platform when the P990i goes on sale, Sony Ericsson has decided to announce the smartphone well in advance of availability so that developers have time to create and certify as many applications as possible.

“The technical prowess of the P990i will be brought to full life by applications from the third party developer community,” said Jan Wäreby, Executive Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing. “Demand for applications on the P800, P900 and P910i has been very high. Our smartphones have been recognised as the most advanced and useful on the market, and we want to maintain this reputation with the P990i by ensuring there is a rich supply of top applications for enterprise, productivity, leisure and gaming when users make their first visit to the Sony Ericsson Application Shop.”

As with its predecessors, the P990i is designed to be first and foremost a great mobile phone. It also offers all the benefits of UMTS including video calling, high-bandwidth multi-media downloads and the ability to browse the Internet with full HTML pages. These are viewed in landscape on the new Opera 8 browser. In addition, the P990i is prepared for all major push email clients enabling full email access with attachments, anywhere, anytime.

The P990i has multiple text input methods enabling it to support all users’ needs and preferences. Writing emails is made easier by the new hardware keyboard positioned beneath the flip-down keypad on the main body of the phone. Reading them is made simpler on the large 2.8 inch QVGA touch screen. Multi tasking – being able to browse the Internet, send and receive files at the same time as talking – is now possible due to the enhanced capabilities of the new software platform.

Memory has been extended in order to handle all multi-media downloads and email attachments. Memory Stick PRO Duo up to 4GB will be available in the market at launch and the P990i now has up to 80 MB user free memory. A 64 MB Memory Stick PRO Duo is included in the box, preloaded with a VPN client and trial version of a virus scan package.

The combination of UMTS and WLAN features will also significantly improve the efficiency and flexibility of applications such as email, browsing the Internet/Intranet and video telephony. WLAN, available in hot spots all over the world, acts as a complement to high speed 3G services, enabling widespread access to corporate network services.

Other new features include automatic time zone change to the Calendar diary and updated PC sync software with extended synchronization possibilities. Additionally the 2 Megapixel camera with autofocus, digital zoom, photo light, plus the bright TFT screen and video recording, provide a high quality imaging experience. 

In a separate announcement today, Sony Ericsson Developer World and UIQ Technology outlined their plans to support UIQ 3 developers.

Developers can program in C++ or Java™ to create powerful professional and personal productivity tools for the P990i. The smartphone is based on Java Platform 3 (JP-3). It supports four new Java Specification Requests (JSR’s) including Web Services (JSR-172) and is the twentieth phone from Sony Ericsson supporting Mobile Java™ 3D, demonstrating the company’s leadership in this new technology. Standard Java™ applications can be run with either the flip-down keypad open or closed.

The Dual mode UMTS (2100MHz) P990i that works on GPRS 900/1800/1900 networks will be commercially available in Q1 2006.

The P990i will be available in four hardware keyboard variants: QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY and Russian.

The P990i will be demonstrated in booth 124 at The Smartphone Show 2005 in the ExCeL Centre in London on October 11-12, where Sony Ericsson is headline sponsor.

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