Sony Ericsson has unveiled two mobile handsets, hot on the heels of Nokia and Motorola, both of which announced a trolley-load of new devices recently.
The reason for all this activity is CeBIT - the massive technology trade fair in Hanover, Germany.
With all eyes on the CeBIT stands, handset vendors are under intense pressure to come up with innovative products or risk being labelled as industry slackers.
Sadly for Sony, Ericsson has a tradition of displaying products at the show that either turn up very late, or never see the light of day. This tradition appears to have reached their joint venture. The Sony Ericsson P800, unveiled a year ago in Hanover, is only now turning up on shelves.
The venture's latest models, the T310 and T610, are high-end 2.5-generation handsets that may have to arrive on time because, though each boasts plenty of attractive features, by next year they could look dated.
The T310 (left) is aimed at the same youth gaming market that Nokia has targeted with its N-Gage. The phone comes with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 from Activision. Sony Ericsson partner Jamdat has tested several dozen games that can be downloaded for either the Java or Mophun (C++) platforms. To add realism to the skateboard game, the phone has 32 polyphonic sounds and vibrating force feedback. You might not bleed when you wipe out, but you can at least feel the buzz.
As a further indication of the target market, the phone comes in a choice of flaming gold, fashion blue and funky purple.
