More features up for Sony Ericsson P990i

Sony Ericsson has revealed a host of unannounced applications and entertainment content features for its flagship Wi-Fi-enabled UMTS smartphone, the P990i, which was introduced to the Global Developers community last October.

They include details on supported push e-mail partners, anti-virus/firewall and VPN clients for secure corporate business, business card scanner, and new entertainment content and features.

The P990i is the next in a line of successful Sony Ericsson smartphones – the P800, P900i and P910i – and is based on the same proven concept and recognizable form factor.

It is designed to be first and foremost a great mobile phone but offers all the benefits of UMTS, including video calling, high-bandwidth multimedia downloads, and the ability to browse the Internet with full HTML pages. These are viewed in landscape on the new Opera 8 browser.

"The P990i is a very significant new product for us. It’s a sophisticated device that gets us to the point where mobile executives can really start to minimize on the number of devices and paperwork they carry around with them," says Jan Wareby, corporate executive vice president and head of sales and marketing of Sony Ericsson. 

"The push e-mail capability especially helps bring true business mobility and we have deployed technology and formed partnerships to ensure that mobile e-mail and Web browsing access is provided in a safe, secure and fast environment," Wareby said.

Push e-mail

Secure, simple and fast access to e-mail and the Internet are critical requirements for true office mobility, and this is an area where the P990i excels.

The ability to access e-mail and calendar while out of the office is critical for mobile executives as they no longer need to return to the office to perform this task.

The P990i will support a range of push e-mail services such as AlteXia, Ericsson Mobile Office (EMO) (Try and Buy), iAnywhere OneBridge, Intellisync, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, RIM-BlackBerry Connect, Seven, Visto and Standard Email-IMAP IDLE working on all standards-compliant servers.

Sony Ericsson has partnered with antivirus software giant McAfee to offer McAfee VirusScan and Firewall Mobile to further strengthen the P990i’s e-mail and Web browsing security.

This Try & Buy software provides scanning services on e-mails, attachments and Web downloads for cellular communications, all to the same standard as its well-known computer applications.

Secure access to corporate networks completes the remote e-mail story as Sony Ericsson offers a free VPN client powered by Certicom.

Business card scanner

Cameras in phones have any number of business applications for capturing and sharing images. Creative minds have moved a few steps further by turning the P990i’s two-megapixel with auto focus camera into a business card scanner, using character recognition software to convert the scanned information from the card to Contacts on the P990i.

The large 2.8-inch QVGA (262K TFT) touchscreen and large viewfinder help users capture the full business card size in one go.

P990i users are expected to spend a fair amount of their time traveling on business and more has been added to the smartphone to make this "downtime" in their working life as relaxing or entertaining as required.

The P990i’s suite of entertainment applications is supported by a 3D Hardware Accelerator and exciting 3D Java games such as Vijay Singh Pro Golf 2005 from Gameloft, which will lighten up the longest journeys together with a fully equipped music player that supports MP3, AAC and AAC+ formats, and includes a flight mode allowing the music player to be used when the phone is switched off.

The broadest possible choice of new applications for the P990i will be available at launch from the Sony Ericsson Application Shop.

The Application Shop is an important part of the Try & Buy concept. It will feature the full versions of the trial applications that are preloaded on the P990i’s Memory Stick included in the box.

With the new mobile storefront, applications can be purchased directly from the phone and downloaded over-the-air.

The P990i will be commercially available in the second quarter.