The Sony Ericsson P1 takes features from both the M600 and P990, beefs up the hardware and delivers it in what Lars Lindström, senior product manager at Sony Ericsson, describes as a smaller, slimmer package.

Hardware improvements include an increase in battery capacity from 950 mAh on previous UIQ 3 phones to 1120 mAh on the P1, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a transflective display -improving readability in bright light - and a significant increase in the available RAM. According to Lars the P1 boasts 160 MB of free flash memory and the available RAM for applications has been increased by over 400% compared to the P990. "This additional RAM delivers much improved performance in the P1," says Lars. "P1 users will see their applications run faster, will be able to open more applications at once, and swiftly switch between them to, for example, more easily view large attachments received via e-mail."

The P1's software features continue Sony Ericsson's focus on push e-mail, with support for BlackBerry Connect 4 and ActiveSync clients. "We have been seeing a lot of interest in ActiveSync from enterprise customers and in Blackberry from operators," says Lars. "So, with the P1 we will be improving our already broad support for push email." Lars notes that the P1 will also provide additional security features, supported through the ActiveSync and BlackBerry 4 clients, such as the ability to remotely wipe the content of the phone if it gets lost or stolen.

Unlike the P990, the P1 does not include a flip keyboard, instead it uses the combined keyboard layout seen in the M600. "We've done a lot of focus work on the keyboard," says Lars. "When we launched the M600 there was some uncertainty as to how users would react to the keyboard. We have found that once users are familiar with it, the dual keyboard is quicker and easier to use than a conventional smartphone keyboard and as good as other keyboard variant in the market."

Sony Ericsson is positioning the P1 to appeal to broadly the same users as the P990, but at a price point that expands the user base. "We believe the P1 will build on the success of the P990 and take the concept to a larger market. Research has also shown that the size and design will attract more women," says Lars.

To enhance this broader appeal, the P1 includes an improved media player and the TrackID feature seen on the W950. This will provide what Lars described as a mid-class music capability. At the same time the sales package will also include a 512 MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) (with cards up to 4GB supported) to allow users to carry their favorite content, music, and video clips with them.

The P1 will also provide an updated API for VoIP support, however Lars was at pains to point out that this feature could be disabled in operator customized phones. While there is no confirmed VoIP applications for the P1, Lars did hint that they were coming.

Desktop connectivity will also support Microsoft Vista and Apple iSync.

One criticism Sony Ericsson hopes to eliminate with the P1 is that regarding the stability of the firmware. "I think it's quite clear that we had some problems with the quality of the early P990 firmware," says Lars. "Today however we have achieved a level of quality in the firmware of our three UIQ 3 phones which exceeds what we have achieved in the past. More importantly, with P1 I think we are doing better than current competition." To build on these gains the firmware on the P1 will be based on the P990 firmware, which Lars indicated is expected to go through a least one more significant update before the launch of the P1.

However, why is Sony Ericsson not using UIQ 3.1 on it new phones, when the Motorola MOTORIZR Z8, due out before the P1, will be using UIQ 3.1? "With a few exceptions, UIQ 3.1 simply brings the UIQ platform up to date with features we have already delivered in our implementation of UIQ 3.0," says Marie-Louise Olsson, communications manager for Sony Ericsson's Developer Program. "It is of the utmost importance to us to achieve stability in the P1, rather than add one or two minor features. It also means that any additional improvements we can make in the firmware for the P1 can also be made available for M600, W950, and P990 owners."

Marie-Louise points to Bluetooth 2.0 as an example. Bluetooth 2.0 support is provided on UIQ 3.1, but was already implemented in Sony Ericsson's version of UIQ 3.0. There are however some features missed by not moving to UIQ 3.1. These include OMA Device Management v1.2, the ability to embed the camera directly into applications, and provide integrated SVG tiny 1.2 viewing from third-party applications. "We don't see a pressing demand from users or operators for the few features we are missing because we haven't moved to UIQ 3.1," says Marie-Louise. "We believe that they are far more interested in seeing the P1 delivered with stable firmware."

From a developers perspective the P1 offers the same APIs, 3D graphics acceleration and WiFi capability as the P990. However, Sony Ericsson believes a simple menu restructuring will make the P1 of significant advantage to developers. This change is to group all the mechanisms by which users can access new applications under one main menu icon directly visible on the desktop; the "More Applications" icon.

This will take user to links for free applications, the Try & Buy applications, Sony Ericsson Application Shop, and Fun & Downloads.

"By providing the user with a single entry point to a whole range of downloads for their P1 we believe we can help drive application sales," says Marie-Louise. "Particularly for customers who have not used a smartphone before, this feature will really show the advantages of an open OS."

It is not surprising therefore to find that third-party applications are an important part of the P1. As with the P990, business card scanner and the OpenGL ES game Vijay Singh Pro Golf 3D are included on the phone. The OpenGL ES capabilities, harnessed by the graphics hardware accelerator, are also showcased in Raging Thunder from Telcogames that is included in the Try & Buy applications. There are other new Try & Buy applications including the Sony LocationFree TV client, Shozu 3.0 (which was awarded the most innovative mobile application at this year's 3GSM), Mobile Blogger, and the latest version of WayFinder Navigator 7, which now includes 3-D map views.

"Today we have over 350 UIQ 3 applications in the Sony Ericsson Application Shop, which we are very pleased about," says Marie-Louise. "With the emphasis we are putting on firmware stability, we are confident that this number will grow at an increasing rate."

For Java developers the P1 continues support for both CDC and CDLC environments, including the Mobile 3D Graphics API for the Java ME Platform, JSR-184.

The fact that the P1 is evolutionary rather than revolutionary should be good news for developers. Existing P990 applications as well as M600 and W950 applications should run on the P1 unchanged. With the increasing emphasis on Symbian Signed it also means there will be no overhead in resigning applications. The objective of firmware stability should also offer benefits, in both applications development and sales. The move towards a broader market and greater emphasis on the non-business features of the P1 should also open up opportunities for a wider range of entertainment related applications.

Sony Ericsson clearly has high expectations of the P1 and hopes it will build on the success of the P990, which Lars indicated is now selling slightly ahead of expectations, showing a positive trend against the background of the quality and stability issues on the earlier releases. The fact that Sony Ericsson appear to have merged the best features of the M600 and P990 may seem like an odd move, given that the differentiation between the M600 and P990 was emphasized as an indication of increasing use of UIQ in Sony Ericsson's portfolio. However, the emphasis on quality and stability suggests that this move could be paving the way for UIQ to move into other sectors of Sony Ericsson's portfolio.

The Sony Ericsson P1 will be in selected markets in the third quarter of 2007.

Read the P1 press rlease here.