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- It is a 'concept' device in the sense it is early in the development cycle. However it will lead to a phone in due course. Sony Ericsson say they will announce more details, including specifications and a release, this summer. This would point towards a release date in the early part of 2010. Idou is the concept name, not the name of the final device.
- It has a 12.1 megapixel camera with Xenon flash, a 3.5 inch touchscreen (which will have an aspect ratio of 16:9). These are the only official specifications. However you can also infer a number of other details: On the right hand side of the device there is text that indicates WiFi connectivity and a GPS chipset are included. There's also a microSD card slot on the left hand side of the device.
- The Idou is part of Sony Ericsson's 'Entertainment Unlimited' consumer proposition, which they are launching at Mobile World Congress this year. It is about 'Bringing together rich content, unique applications and best in class entertainment experiences'. Idou can be seen the expression of the 'latest snapshot of thinking' of Entertainment Unlimited. There are three key areas:
- Uniting Sony Ericsson entertainment experiences (Walkman - music, Cybershot - imaging, and Java gaming) into one offering.
- Broadening the entertainment beyond the phone to the rest of the home (TVs, HiFis etc. via UPnP), letting consumers share and consume entertainment content in a flexible way.
- Fusing communication with entertainment, primarily by enabling sharing. Or in other words... it is still a phone too.
- The device will run the Symbian Foundation Platform, the first release of which is due in Q2 of this year. In effect this means it will be running a descendant of S60 5th Edition. Given the timescales involved it might be analogous to S60 5th Edition Feature Pack 1. However the naming conventions of the software platform will likely not include S60.
- The device will be Symbian Foundation Certified. This means it will be certified as being compatible (from a platform perspective) with the standard Symbian Foundation Platform release. It will be cross compatible with other devices from Samsung, Nokia and other Symbian Foundation users.
- The software will be 'Sony Ericsson-ised'. Sony Ericsson said they are looking to bring their user experience (UX) patterns to the device. For example the demo device had a test build which included the standard Sony Ericsson media bar and Walkman music player. We can expect to see customised Sony Ericsson applications, iconography and style. The device's UI will look substantially different to current Nokia and Samsung S60 devices. Further assessment will have to wait until later in the device's development cycle.
- Sony Ericsson say they are announcing Idou 'early' for a number of reasons. They intend it to be a declaration of intent in terms of their confidence in the platform. They are also confident that they can bring it to the marketing in a timely matter because of their confidence in the platform. They also acknowledged that there is a need to entice developers to Sony Ericsson products. While developers can create their programs against the Symbian Foundation Platform SDK it is very likely that Sony Ericsson will provide additional API and resources to take advantage of custom Sony Ericsson technology.
