In an industry wracked with consolidation and tough economic realities, Ericsson's been an unusually steady force -- probably thanks to the fact that it's a giant in wireless infrastructure -- so we're pretty confident in saying that the departure of CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg to become head honcho over at BP isn't an indication that there's trouble brewing in the ranks. That's especially true considering that Svanberg will stay on as CEO until the end of the year and will remain on Ericsson's board beyond that. Replacing him will be up-and-comer Hans Vestberg, who currently serves as CFO -- so it's not that big of a move, and apparently one that's been expected among Ericsson's watchers for some time. How this'll ultimately affect the dynamic between Ericsson and fellow joint-venture parent Sony is unclear, but if this means we can get a PSP phone faster, we're totally behind ya, Hans.

[Via mocoNews]

Sony Ericsson's pushing its Walkman and Cyber-shot sub-brands harder than ever these days, but there's still plenty of good stuff in the regular range, too -- take this T715, for example. The newly announced slider features a 3.2 megapixel camera with "photo light" (don't call it a flash), sunlight-viewable 2.2-inch QVGA display, 3G, an impressive claimed 20 days of standby time, and a compact shell -- SE says it's the size of a credit card when closed. Launched alongside the T715 is the VH310 headset, available in your choice of silver or black with three different earpieces and two loops to fit your screwed-up head perfectly. Look for the phone to launch in Galaxy Silver and Rouge Pink (isn't that a contradiction?) in the third quarter -- and yes, both global and North American 3G versions will be available.

Better late than never, right? Some sixteen excruciating months after its announcement, Sony Ericsson's WinMo superphone -- the mighty XPERIA X1 -- has finally come to Rogers as expected. Considering that the X1 is still very much one of the world's premier smartphones (on paper, anyhow), the on-contract promotional price of CAD $249.99 after discounts seems reasonable enough -- of course, whether you feel the same way after three years of mobile marriage is another story altogether. Staying within the Sony Ericsson realm, the C510 has also launched, an attractive candybar with 7.2Mbps / 2Mbps HSPA and a 3.2 megapixel cam; it's all yours for CAD $79.99 on contract.

[Via Howard Chui]

Read - X1
Read - C510

Look, we're not going to stop you if you insist on staying up until 4:30AM ET tomorrow morning to see what Sony Ericsson has in store at its CommunicAsia press conference, we just don't want you to walk away with a broken heart if nothing cool happens there, alright? Xperiancers is now reporting that the show will be little more than a recap on the company's recent announcements -- chiefly the GreenHeart stuff, the Satio, and the Aino -- which means the X2 may not be happening for a while yet. That's disappointing, yes, but no one's exactly calling the X1 a slouch in the spec department just yet, so maybe this is a strategic win for Sony Ericsson -- particularly with a big Rogers launch just around the corner.

We figure that the Sony Ericsson X1 is destined for Rogers any day now -- just around the same time that we suspect the X2 will be announced, ironically -- and now we're starting to get an idea on pricing. A tipster writes in to tell us that this CAD $499.99 you're seeing here is for an upgrade customer with no data plan, which would be crazy high for a new lad coming in off the street and signing up for a three-year deal, we hope, but it gives us a good picture of what current customers might have to gear up for. Excessive, perhaps -- but then again, some of us will go to the ends of the Earth for WVGA.

[Thanks, cell143]

Nokia certainly took its launch lineup seriously ahead of CommunicAsia's grand opening in Singapore this week with the launch of the 5530 XpressMusic and E72, and considering that, we're willing to bet that Sony Ericsson would want to make a similarly big splash when it holds its press conference on Wednesday -- but what could it be? The Satio and Aino are already out there, so it seems like the odds-on favorite for announcement here would have to be the well-leaked XPERIA X2. If the leaks turn out to be spot-on accurate, we're definitely not sold that the phone's any better-looking than the X1 it replaces, but then again, it'd be awfully hard to argue with an 8.1 megapixel cam and OLED display running Windows Mobile 6.5, even if you're not a WinMo kinda person. The action kicks off at 4:30PM Singapore time, which works out to a torturous 4:30AM for you New Yorkers -- so just how badly do you want to see it possibly unveiled, eh? And more importantly, how peeved will you be if it isn't?

[Via WMExperts and Electronista]

Reaction to the rumored X2 pictures leaked this far has been lukewarm at best, but hold up -- it's looking a whole lot different (and arguably better) in silver. We can certainly buy that this is dead-on real, since... well, it looks real, and also because the X1's also available in both shades. We're still not convinced it outshines its predecessor for sheer sex appeal, but an 8.1 megapixel camera upgrade is hard to argue with, isn't it? Anyhow, with this many units seemingly floating around in the wild, let's hope we're not too far off from an official announcement.

[Via Daily Mobile, thanks Daniel]

We couldn't make heads or tails of that thumbnail image we got sent a couple days ago alleging to be Sony Ericsson's X1 replacement -- it's not that we necessarily didn't buy it, it was just to friggin' small and weird to figure out what was going on. Well, when it rains, it pours, because a forum member over on fanklub.se has given up the goods in the form of a couple significantly better shots. We can already sense that there'll be a fierce debate brewing over whether this looks better than the phone it's destined to succeed, but the X2 definitely ups the specs with an 8.1 megapixel cam, flash, and what could be an extraordinarily usable keyboard (final judgment on that will have to wait until we play with a unit, but you've got to admit, anything would be an improvement over the first model). Still no word on when this might come to market or even be announced, unfortunately. Peep another shot after the break.

[Via CoolSmartPhone, thanks Gears]

Remember that "Elle" we mentioned in the leaked roadmap this morning? Whatever it is, it's destined to replace the somewhat homely TM506 -- which makes this here TM717 a prime candidate (especially considering that "Elle" was the T707's internal codename prior to launch). The handset looks to be little more than a T707 rebrand with AWS 3G thrown in for good measure, which would make it just what the doctor ordered to pick up where the TM506 left off, especially since it'd have a 3.2 megapixel cam versus the older model's 2. If the roadmap's close to correct, we have a few months left to wait for this one -- but it's not the end of the world since the CS8 is the Sony Ericsson that we're really waiting for anyway.

Leaked carrier roadmap documents of unknown age and origin aren't necessarily the most accurate things in the world, but they are one very awesome, important thing: leaked. Pictured above is a fragment of one such spreadsheet that we've had the good fortune of receiving for T-Mobile USA -- obviously it's a little bit on the small slide, but no sweat, we'll walk you through what it's saying. Again, we wouldn't take these dates as the gospel truth, but we'd venture to say they're a good rough guide for what to expect out of these guys for the next few months. Move along for the full list!

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

It looks like Sony Ericsson is taking a page out of Apple's book for the launch of its app store, bundling the service in with the very same platform it already uses to distribute music and movies. PlayNow arena -- which was originally designed for music distribution and whose movie rental functionality is going live this month in a handful of locales -- is now being expanded to incorporate applications as well, initially coming to 13 countries and some 38 Sony Ericsson models. Conveniently, PlayNow arena is already well-plumbed to support a variety of blling methods which should make the transition to paid apps a pretty seamless one for the company, devs, and users alike. Submissions from developers for inclusion in the store will kick off July 1, initially covering Java and Symbian before being expanded to cover "additional platforms" (Android, anyone?) later in the year; there's no word, though, on exactly when end users will be able to get in on the action.

A tipster tells us that the device you're looking at here is Sony Ericsson's codename "Vulcan" -- better known as the X2 -- which would presumably replace the X1 at some point in the next few days, weeks, months, or years. Though the picture's small, you can clearly make out the X Panel button in the lower left of the phone's front and a Windows key in the upper left of the keyboard, which adds a dose of credibility -- the company has, after all, put quite a bit of time and effort into pimping its panel interface SDK, and right now, the X1 is the only device that supports it. The image looks a little rough around the edges, but we can easily chalk that up to this being either a composite mockup or a very early prototype combined with the fact that our tipster seems to have blanked out the surroundings to protect the source. We're not saying it's definitely real, but this certainly looks plausible -- we're just not convinced yet that it looks better than the model it'd replace. Thoughts?

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Where we come from, microSD to USB adapters are free pack-ins with our memory cards, and video stands for our phones -- on the ultra-rare occasions that we feel the need for such functionality -- are MacGyvered out of whatever odds and ends we happen to have in the vicinity. It doesn't take a lot of technology to keep a phone from falling over, after all. Alas, Sony Ericsson has stumbled upon a great way to relieve you of a few dollars with its fancily-named IM920 Video Viewing Stand, a product which does nothing more than integrate those two functions into a single 13-cent piece of black plastic. The best part, though, is that it can't even do that well -- it appears from the company's press shot here that you've got to split the "stand" duties between the IM920 and the Satio's port connector. In case you're feeling any uncontrollable desire to burn cash on this finely-crafted gizmo, allow us to help you: it's expected to be available "within 6 months," so you've got some time to cool off.

What exactly does $600 buy you these days? If you're looking at Sony Ericsson and you live in the States, the answer is now this, the Walkman-branded W995a, which we've had a chance to play with in advance of its July 6 date with destiny. Charging $600 for any phone -- much less a non-smartphone -- is a tough proposition to be making (particularly in a not-so-hot economy), but the company seems to be very cognizant of the fact that it's putting this out there strictly for the niche enthusiasts who like their hardware totally uncrippled and without a trace of carrier branding inside or out. We'd even go so far as to say that this'll be a loss leader for them -- it's not designed to make money so much as it's designed to keep Sony Ericsson in the hearts and minds of shoppers, keep folks aware that they've got hot hardware available, and take advantage of those who do buy it to evangelize the brand. Read on!

It's not every day that Sony Ericsson custom crafts a model just for North American store shelves, so it's pretty exciting to see that the W995a -- a phone mentioned in passing back in February alongside the announcement of its W995 brother -- is very, very real and imminently destined for SonyStyle shops across the colonies. Following the company's typical naming conventions (well, "typical" prior to the Satio / Aino / Yari, anyway), the W995a is simply a W995 that's had its 900 / 2100MHz HSDPA radio gutted and replaced with an 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz version, making it ripe for 3.5G use both in the States and abroad. Features include a 2.6-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth, Memory Stick Micro slot, 3.5mm audio jack, WiFi, FM radio, AGPS, and an 8.1 megapixel camera with face detection, image stabilization, and autofocus -- in other words, it's packed to the gills with pretty much every feature this side of a smartphone operating system. Sony Ericsson says that it's a perfect match for "unlocked purists and phone junkies" -- language we like to hear -- and will be available to all comers from SonyStyle on starting July 6 for "about $600."