The clever folks aboard the good ship Omio have posted what they claim is a manufacturer roadmap for a huge number of UK mobile phones. They’ve listed more devices than it’s possible to shake a stick at, so we recommend you check out the article in its entirety, but we’ve selected a few of the more interesting devices for you here.
Take all of this with a healthy fistful of salt, as Omio hasn’t revealed its source, and we have no way of knowing whether or not any of the dates or details posted here are true. (Incidentally, if you found this article by Googling ‘healthy fistful of salt’, salt really isn’t that healthy, you should cut back, okay?)
Sony Ericsson W20
The wandering Walkman returns! One of Sony’s most famous brands is back, and will allegedly be bounding into the mobile market this July. It looks pretty neat, but if that funny lookin’ socket in the right-hand picture turns out to be a proprietary headphone port, we’ll eat our own hands in a fit of rage.
BlackBerry Curve 9300
Supposedly hitting the UK in August, the Curve 9300 (nicknamed the Kelper, weirdly) should fit neatly between the Curve 8520 and Bold 9700, so somewhere in the mid-range in terms of price. Omio reports there’s a 3.2-megapixel camera on board and that full Qwerty keyboard certainly screams ‘BlackBerry’ to us.
Nokia X2
A new addition to the X series, we’ve spotted this sleek candybar phone before. Omio predicts a September release for this particular bundle of joy, and it will supposedly feature a 5-megapixel camera and a choice of silver and blue (pictured) or red and black colours. We desperately want a really decent Nokia phone this year, so fingers crossed this one’s a winner.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Shakira
Another September release, this phone will apparently sit somewhere between the more powerful, high-end Android-running Xperia X10 and the more diminutive X10 Mini and Mini Pro. The X8 (which we will forever call the Shakira, regardless of the veracity of these leaks) is another handset we’ve come across before — read our in-depth analysis by clicking this link. We really don’t think Android 1.6 cuts the mustard these days, but we’ll have to see in October, when this phone is rumoured to go on sale.
HTC Gold
Now we’re talking. Everyone’s favourite Taiwanese smart-phone titan is rumoured to be taking its first crack at the new Windows Phone 7 operating system with this device. That image isn’t much to go on, but it certainly looks like this handset would suit the stripped-down interface we’re expecting from Microsoft’s new platform. Omio reckons November is the month we’ll see this mythical mobile.
As soon as we can confirm or deny these release details and device information, we’ll pass the knowledge along.