Sunday evening before the start of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sony Ericsson unveiled its prototype Idou smartphone. Sony Ericsson provided an early glance at its second-ever full touchscreen phone. The company also unveiled an 8 megapixel camera phone and unlimited movie download service for mobile phones.

The Idou name is currently a placeholder for the phone, which has little extra confirmed information and will get more details sometime in the first half of 2009.

With a 3.5-inch touchscreen display and a 12.1 megapixel camera, the high-end mobile device will be released under the company's new Entertainment Unlimited umbrella later this year. Sony Ericsson are describing this as “Uniting, Broadening and Fusing”, and it will incorporate not only PS3 and online video and audio content, but information from Facebook and other social networks.

The phone will run the first version of the Symbian Foundation's operating system and features intuitive touch controls, a Xenon flash, and true 16:9 wide screen viewing.

Adding the Idou is crucial to Sony Ericsson, which was one of the earliest members of the Symbian Foundation and whose decision helped shut down UIQ and force a change in mobile operating systems.

Pricing and availability for the Idou prototype has not been announced, but the company says the phone will be released in the second half of 2009.
As far as the second release is concerned, beyond its Walkman player, 8.1-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi connectivity, the Sony Ericsson W995 offers a YouTube player and new Media Go transfer software.

The Sony Ericsson W995 will also finally bring a YouTube video player to a high-end Walkman phone, and videos can be streamed via Wi-Fi connectivity and HSDPA. Luckily, the phone will be available in an American version supporting AT&T's HSDPA network.
But while this Walkman phone still does music very well, the W995 is also equipped for heavy duty photo and video tasks, too, and can even upload and download files on blazingly fast HSPA. 

The W995 Walkman is also the first device to feature Sony Ericsson's new Media Go system, which will handle music and video media files of almost any format, and properly convert them to work on the mobile phone.

Its 8.1 megapixel camera features automatic focus, face detection, and also has a flash on hand for when the sun goes down. Other media friendly features include a 3.5mm headphone port and an included 8GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card for storage.

The Sony Ericsson W995 supports Google Maps and a 3-month trial of Wayfinder Navigator will be included in the sales package. Messaging features include SMS with Chat View, MMS, personal e-mail, instant messaging as well as Exchange ActiveSync support for business users.

The Sony Ericsson W995 will be available in the second quarter of 2009. Price and availability has not been announced yet; moreover the phone is expected to be offered as an unlocked phone only in the U.S.A.