This is based on a rumor. Please do NOT base important business decisions on this write-up!
The folks at the usually-reliable Sony Ericsson Blog recently posted an underexposed photo of a device which they designated as the Hicaru. I have performed some image editing to improve the exposure, and ended up with the picture below:
When taking a good look at the box, one immediately is reminded of the hugely-successful but overaged Sony Ericsson P1i phone. Even though this box is really showing signs of age, carriers like the Austrian A1 still peddle it to its business customers.
I can make out a full QWERTY keyboard in the right half of the screen - it looks like the days of MultiTap keyboards are over (for now). When looking at the proportions, I consider it likely that we are looking at a slider phone - the line and the size/form factor (at the B) are pretty obvious.
The biggest tell-tale sign for touchscreenness is the complete lack of a 5way navigator - the phone needs to be controllable with the slider closed. Even though SE could always run a custom UI…the company’s long experience with UIQ is likely to make UIQ the cheaper option.
I personally am pretty sure that this is a genuine photograph of a phone, as the processing has revealed flaws typical for such images. Nevertheless, it remains questionable if the box will ever hit the road: Sony Ericsson has canceled quite a few (market-ready) UIQ smartphones recently…
As already said: this is all speculation. But: stay tuned for further info as we get it!
