We’re still looking forward to seeing some new hardware out of Sony at the Mobile World Congress next month, but at least we got word of a few models at the CES to help tide us over until then. One of those new handsets is one we’ve been hearing about for some time now, the LT26i Nozomi, now revealed as the Xperia S. Based on reports from retails of when they hope to expect the Xperia S to go up for sale, it was looking like the smartphone might not reach users’ hands until March. Now it seems those launch plans may have changed, as another retailer has confirmed its intent to begin Xperia S sales this month, on January 30.
Retailer Play.com has opened pre-orders for the Xperia S. Users in the UK will pay what works out to nearly $700 for the phone (more than we heard previously), shipping right at the tail-end of the month. The site has reportedly confirmed the January 30 date as accurate, so this isn’t just some database glitch. We wonder if other retailers will be updating their stock expectations to match; so far, at least Clove is still clinging to March.
We continue to see shots of in-development hardware still feature the old Sony Ericsson name, as Sony transitions settles into its new role taking full control over its smartphone efforts. This Xperia S will be an important part of that shift, acting as the first smartphone to reflect the new state of the company, as just plain “Sony”.
