14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile phone carrier Verizon Wireless is expected to bring to the market in the United States one of the nicest Android-based smartphones that Sony Ericsson made official during the ongoing year, namely the Xperia PLAY.
Sony Ericsson and Verizon already announced that the smartphone would land at the carrier during the ongoing year, but no specific info on when that would happen emerged for the time being.
However, it seems that the new Android mobile phone is already appearing in the carrier's inventory, some of the latest reports around the Internet suggest.
A leaked shot of Verizon's system shows a Sony R800X device, which is said to be the CDMA flavor of the Xperia PLAY smartphone.
Since the announcement was already made in an official manner, there's no surprise that the carrier's inventory shows the Xperia PLAY, though the actual release date is still unknown at the moment.
One thing that is known, however, is that the smartphone is not arriving in the United States exclusively on Verizon Wireless' network.
In a recent interview with FierceWireless, Sony Ericsson CTO Jan Uddenfeldt confirmed this state of facts.
According to him, Sony Ericsson and Verizon inked the deal on Xperia PLAY's availability in the US mainly due to the tight relationship between the carrier and Google.
This is the first agreement the two sign, and is not exclusive, Uddenfeldt stated, adding that other wireless carriers in the US, such as AT&T, might also add the smartphone to their offerings.
However no official announcement was made now, and any possible deal with another carrier in the US could be unveiled at a later date.
Currently, the handset is known to be on its way to the UK market, on the airwaves of O2, Orange, Vodafone, or Three, as well as for Canada, where it would be carried by Rogers.
Running under Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the Xperia PLAY smartphone sports a sliding gaming pad and is the first PlayStation-certified device in the world.
