Sony Ericsson has announced its global release schedule for the highly anticipated Xperia X1 smartphone, beginning with the UK, Germany and Switzerland on 30 September, but Australia will not see the X1 until at least three months later.
The statement from Sony Ericsson indicates that the X1 will also be released in selected Asia Pacific countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan, shortly after in the fourth quarter of 2008. Australians will not see a local release of the phone until the first quarter of 2009.
A spokesperson for Sony Ericsson said that the Q1 release schedule for Australia was in line with the company's original expectations, but could not comment on why Australia would have to wait.
The Xperia X1 is Sony Ericsson's first attempt at manufacturing a business-focused mobile phone running Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. Early details of the phone's specifications suggested a full-featured smartphone to rival the likes of established smartphone brands like BlackBerry and HTC's Touch series. The X1 also features a high resolution touchscreen colour display similar to Apple's iPhone 3G.
Sony Ericsson is now going to lose a lot of favour now. It was originally stranuous just having to wait until Q4, now Q1 2009?!?!? whole lot of crap.