A few days ago a "mean rumor" appeared, saying that Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 super handset will not be released in 2008, as initially announced, but at the beginning of 2009, one of the reasons for this being the delay of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1, the OS that X1 runs on.

Of course, the rumor didn't start out of nothing, it was powered by a table posted on the SEMC blog, table that showed the future release dates for different Sony Ericsson phones announced to come this year. According to this table, Xperia X1 was planned to hit the market on the 10th of February 2009, after no less than one year since its first announcement.

Following the release of the infamous table on the Web, Sony Ericsson's fans (and not only) were alarmed that the craved-by-everyone Xperia X1 will not reach their hands / pockets as soon as they thought it would.

Fortunately, thanks to the Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog, we now know that Xperia X1 will come in 2008 and not in 2009. Aldo Liguori, Corporate Vice President of the Global Communications and PR department of Sony Ericsson, declared for the Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: "I can confirm that we will be launching the X1 product in 2nd Half of 2008."
The declaration should clear out all doubts, as it comes from a SE official. Still, it would be nice if it will also appear on Sony Ericsson's website, to assure even the most paranoid users that Xperia X1 is indeed coming in 2008.

As for the delaying rumor, I'm thinking maybe the Swedish-Japanese company actually had something to do with its spreading, in a wish to create more hype around Xperia X1. However, it doesn't matter if this is true or not. Now we can only hope that everything goes the way Sony Ericsson wants and we'll get to see its super-phone on the market before Christmas 2008.