Sony Xperia X10 Officially Available on AT&T with Contract
So this has to be the first time I have seen a device come out in Europe, then come out with an unlocked version with AT&T 3G frequencies built in (and a T-Mobile 3G as well), and THEN, months later, get picked up by a US carrier.
The Sony X10 has been available with AT&T frequencies since March, but apparently it took Sony and AT&T this long to come to an agreement on selling it with a contract through AT&T stores nationwide. Sadly, in that time, the phone has not gotten an upgrade to it’s OS and is still running Android 1.6 that it launched with originally.
The idea is that most Americans don’t consider a phone launched here in the US unless it comes available with a contract on a major carrier. So I’m sure Sony is hoping that now that they have done that, that their US sales of the device will skyrocket. Not too mention with the subsidized contact price of $149.99 (or so) compared to it’s much higher unlocked phone price, it’ll be more in the price range Americans are comfortable with for a cell phone.
Now, the phone is a pretty nice device (check out our quick overview from April) with it’s up to par specs (4″ screen, 1ghz processor, 8MP camera, etc) and it’s a bit unique due to it’s MediaScape and TimeScape interfaces covering Android. But with an outdated version of Android, a custom UI (that we’re noticing more and more users would rather trade for vanilla Android 2.2), and the fact that it’s been out already for quite some time, will US users pick one up? Well, would you?
The phone is scheduled for release around August 15th.
