The Sony Ericsson W950 WalkmanŽ phone is an example of platformization in almost all aspects of its design. The software is UIQ 3, a platform in its own right, and the phone's core design is based on the same configuration as the M600. However, unlike the M600, the W950 has a conventional numeric keypad supplemented by a set of Walkman music controls located between the keypad and the 240 x 320-pixel screen.

Sony Ericsson chose UIQ as the platform for this new Walkman phone because it allowed them to take the Walkman concept to the next level, according to Nicklas Sivander, Senior Product Manager for Sony Ericsson's Symbian OS based phones. Part of Sony Ericsson's goal to implement Walkman in more phones across its portfolio. "UIQ 3 has made it possible for us to develop and launch new phones faster," says Nicklas. "As a result we can more rapidly address different target segments and market needs, as evidenced by this new music-dedicated W950." A key feature of the W950 is a new Walkman player that has been designed to provide easy access to the large number of songs a user can store on the phone. "The new Walkman player takes advantage of the intuitive and user-friendly touchscreen interface in UIQ." says Nicklas. "Together with the large memory on this type of device, the UIQ based Walkman player makes it easier for users to handle large numbers of songs, finding and sorting tracks by artist or album, to quickly pick the track they want to listen to, This new player will make it easy for the user to access music from the up to 4000 songs they can store on this device."

Many early attempts to create music phones have been criticized for their lack of memory. When compared to stand alone MP3 players, often sporting up to 10Gb, the few 100Kb offered in early music phones was seen as a real limitation. The W950 has no such limitation. Its 4Gb onboard flash memory, coupled with support for AAC, AAC+ and Enhanced ACC+ in addition to MP3, means that it is capable of storing up to 4000 songs. The phone is supplied with Disk2Phone PC software that allows owners to rip their CDs into most of the available formats (except Enhanced AAC+) and upload them to the W950. Support for true USB 2.0 is provided. Nicklas claims this allows user to upload 1Gb of data in 3 minutes.

The phone also includes support for Bluetooth™ stereo headsets, and with the W950 Sony Ericsson announced a Stereo Bluetooth Headset, the HBH-DS970. Using Bluetooth 2.0 technology this headset promises the same freedom as earlier monaural headsets, but with high quality stereo sound.

The W950's large built in memory means there is no additional removable memory support and the area occupied by this slot on the M600 has been used for volume controls on the W950. The W950 also comes with an FM RDS radio.

The W950 is not going to be targeted at any specific operator based music service. As an out-of-the-box offering, Sony Ericsson plan that the W950 will be able to play music purchased online from the Sony Connect store, which the user will download to their PC and then upload to the W950 using the Disc2Phone software. User will be able to download songs from their operator’s internet store over the air. However, one of the reasons for building a Walkman phone on Symbian OS is to ease the route to integration with operator music services. “With Symbian OS we can adapt easily to different music services and add support for operators’ provisioning services”, says Nicklas. OMA DRM 1.0 is also supported to provide digital rights management.

From a development perspective the W950 provides almost identical opportunities to Sony Ericsson's other UIQ 3 phones, with one exception. As the W950 is focused on consumers, rather than enterprise or prosumer users, it does not support Java CDC development support. However, Java CDLC development, with a full range of JSRs, that can be used to create music orientated applications, is supported.

In addition, Sony Ericsson is building a developer resource for music and audio applications, in a similar fashion to its Mobile Java 3D support, through www.sonyericsson.com/developer/music. For Java developers, this resource will help guide them through the specific APIs that can be used for music related applications provided by Sony Ericsson's supported JSR's. This will not be exclusively for music applications, but also for those applications that can use music or sound to enhance the user experience. "For Symbian OS developers they not only have the opportunity to create music applications," says Marie-Louise Olsson, Communications Manager for Sony Ericsson Developer World. "We believe there are significant opportunities for adding features like spoken navigation instructions to navigation software or pronunciation guides to dictionary and language applications. The new resource will help developers realize the potential and get technical tips, tools and guidelines to build this type of feature into their applications."

Marie-Louise believes that Sony Ericsson is uniquely positioned to help developers find value in music related applications and services. "The Walkman offering has proved very popular in a very short period of time and shows the strength of the Walkman brand," says Marie-Louise. "With our parent company, Sony, we can offer developers an insight and understanding of the music industry that no other mobile phone manufacturer can. We hope that this will enable a vibrant ecosystem of music developers."

Sony Ericsson hopes that this initiative will stimulate the creation of applications to support the W950 at launch and throughout its life. "In launching this initiative we are making an open call to developers with music related applications," says Marie-Louise. "And we encourage them to contact us to discuss the opportunities."

While music is the main focus of the W950 it also provides a perfect platform for games. It has the same 3D graphics hardware acceleration as the P990 and therefore will allow both C++ and Java developers to create visually attractive games.

W950 has the potential to open up a new market for software sales. Sony Ericsson expects the user demographic for the W950 to move into a younger age group compared to the P series or M600. These users, primarily ranging in age from 20 to 35, are also likely to have the technological understanding to realize that the W950 is more than a phone with a music player.

"The W950 will bring the smartphone to a new category of users," says Nicklas. "The design and ease of use will appeal to a user who may not have previously considered a smartphone. Once they have the phone we expect them to soon discover the potential of an open OS."

While the launch of the M600 indicated that Sony Ericsson views UIQ as more than a way of delivering a flagship smartphone, the W950 places UIQ firmly at the core of Sony Ericsson's product development strategy. Sony Ericsson, with a single UIQ model, has managed to outsell several competing platforms. These new models have the potential to accelerate not only Sony Ericsson's ambitions as a phone manufacturer, but to also firmly position UIQ as the challenger to the smartphone crown.

To find out more about Sony Ericsson's music initiative visit www.sonyericsson.com/developer/music. To get started with C++ development for the P990, M600 and W950 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/java3d.