The emergence of Sony Ericsson's second line of UIQ smartphones is in response to what Oskar Lampel, Senior Product Manager for Sony Ericsson's Symbian OS based phones, see as a real market demand for mass-market phones with enhanced messaging capabilities. It also represent the first steps in Sony Ericsson's ambitions to use Symbian OS power to deliver devices other than high-end smartphones.

"We have seen the target market for our smartphones growing strongly in the area of messaging functionality," says Oskar. "At the same time we realize that not everyone who wants a smartphone wants a camera, even though it is one of Sony Ericsson's strengths. Many companies don't want their employees to have cameras in their phones, nor do they want to pay for this feature. They want a solid work tool."

While excluding a camera has allowed Sony Ericsson to meet enterprise needs and give the M600 a mass-market price tag, it has other advantages too. As Oskar points out the M600 is only two third the thickness of the P990. It offered Sony Ericsson flexibility in other design features too, such as the innovative full keyboard that incorporates a standard 10-digit keypad. Unlike other solutions that rely on predictive software to implement a full keyboard in a similar way, the M600 uses rocker keys with a letter on each side of the key. Another unique feature of the M600 is that it is the first phone to make use of the single handed operation possible with UIQ 3, while retaining stylus and jog dial interaction. New on-screen soft keys will be one of the bigger UI changes when compared to the P990.

As Sony Ericsson sees a mass-market demand for the M600, pricing it in the mid market has been an important goal. This was one of the reasons WiFi has not been provided, although Oskar believes the target market for this style of messaging device does not see WiFi as a necessity (particularly given the M600 is a 3G UMTS device).

Given the M600 is a messaging device, push email is a big feature of the supporting software available for the phone. Support includes solutions from AlteXia, RIM - BlackBerry Connect, Ericsson Mobile Office (EMO), iAnywhere OneBridge, Intellisync, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Seven, and Visto.

Explaining the breadth of push email support Oskar notes that "we are not the ones who should decide what the enterprises' email solution should be - so we have been working to support the widest possible options."

While most of the email solutions require either enterprise or operator implementation to enable push email, Ericsson Mobile Office (EMO) will be available to individual users as one of the M600's try and buy applications. Based on Seven's solution (formerly Smartner) EMO can be used in conjunction with a personal PC, providing push to the M600 as long as the user's PC remains on. However, push email will not be the only focus for the M600. "We will be doing more to make users aware that they can use their standard POP email with the M600, by simply pushing a button to retrieve their email on demand," says Oskar. "We undertook some consumer research recently and when we described to users how they could use their personal internet email in this type of device they were quite excited; then somewhat surprised when we told them they could have done it 5 years ago. So we will be working to educate potential customers about this feature of the M600."

From an applications development perspective the M600 will provide the same API support for native C++ and Java applications as the P990. For Java developers, particularly those developing games, the M600 is Sony Ericsson's 23rd mobile Java 3D phone and continues to underline Sony Ericsson's leadership in this area.

Unfortunately every silver lining has a cloud, and the cloud in this instance is a delay in the shipping of the P990. "The P990 remains an important flagship product for Sony Ericsson," explained Oskar. "But we are getting strong operator interest in the M600. As a result we have accelerated development of the M600 and changed the timing of the P990's introduction, to ensure both phones get to market as early as possible. One of the strengths of the UIQ platform is that it has allowed us to engineer this new phone quickly to respond to operator enthusiasm."

The later release of the P990 does however have compensations in the form of several improved and new features. Video streaming and playback will now be capable of 30fps in full screen mode, the audio recorder adds support for ACC+ as well as the ability to record from the in-built FM radio. There is also a 3D golf game to showcase the 3D graphics accelerator included in the P990's hardware. "The hardware accelerator gives a whole new dimension to mobile gaming," says Oskar. "This new game really shows the advantages of this technology and what can be achieved on the P990. These changes also position the P990 as an exceedingly competent multimedia device, not just a great business tool." Support for developing 3D graphics will be available to C++ and Java developers, with Java support provided by JSR-184.

A business card scanning application has been added too. This allows business cards to captured directly into the contacts application on the P990, using the camera. This application is also an example of co-operation with a third party developer.

The announcement of the P990 at last year's Smartphone Show was partially to provide developers with the opportunity to create applications for the P990 ahead of its launch. This move has started to bear fruit with the selection of the first set of try and buy applications for the P990. Some twelve applications covering business, entertainment, translation and navigation have already been confirmed for preload with the phone, although which applications make it to which markets will depending on the application, languages supported, and legal constraints. Oskar indicated that Sony Ericsson expect more applications will follow, eventually taking up 32MB of the standard 64MB Memory Stick to be shipped with the phone. Many of the applications are already well known, from versions for Sony Ericsson's previous UIQ phones, such as WorldMate, Handy Day, Mobipocket, and Advanced Call Manager. One of the new applications is Abaskus from SymbianWare, an advanced scientific and financial calculator. All of the applications, except Appello WISEPILOT have been written in C++.

All these try and buy applications will give users the option to buy the full version using a link from the application itself. This link will take the user directly to the Sony Ericsson Application Shop, using the P990's browser. "Our research has shown that providing a direct link to buy an application significantly increases the rate of conversion," says Oskar. "By implementing this link in the try and buy applications we hope to improve application sales further."

The changes in Symbian OS v9, which underpins UIQ3, mean that developers had to do more work to prepare their applications for the P990 than with previous P series phones. However, to add to the challenge, Sony Ericsson is pushing to have each application available in as many of the P990's 20 plus supported languages as possible. (The minimum requirement Sony Ericsson has for applications distributed with the P990 is EFIGS [English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish] language support.) This goal is driven both by a desire to provide P990 users with applications in their native language, improving usability and consequently the sales of the applications, but also by legal requirements, such as those imposed by the French government that requires all applications shipped on phones in France to be in French. "We have been working hard with developers to ensure they understand the localization requirements and providing development tips," says Oskar. "In addition we have put together a special arrangement with Cap Gemini to ensure the applications are Symbian Signed in a timely manner."

Oskar also confirmed that Sony Ericsson will be supporting the new Eclipse based Carbide.c++ tools for UIQ 3 development, alongside CodeWarrior and Microsoft Visual Studio 2003. Debugging support on UIQ 3 will be provided by an installable version of MetroTRK, which will be included in Carbide.c++, rather than being built into every device. This is another indication that Sony Ericsson are moving to volume with its UIQ 3 phones.

The M600 clearly represents a significant step in the development of UIQ as a integral part of Sony Ericsson's strategy, moving from the flagship P series into more focused phone offerings. With the success that third party application have achieved on the P series, this move and the advances in try and buy functionality bodes well for developers.

Sony Ericsson will be participating in the UIQ developer track at 3GSM World Congress, for more information visit http://developer.uiq.com/events_dc.

To get started with C++ development for the P990 or M600 download the UIQ SDK and Sony Ericsson's extensions. Java developers will need the Sony Ericsson Java SDKs and can find out more about Mobile Java 3D resources from Sony Ericsson at www.sonyericsson.com/developer/java.