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Not too long ago Sony Ericsson finally released its first Windows Mobile, the Xperia X1, in Europe. In spite of delays due to manufacturing problems that's hindered the smartphone's European roll out, a company spokesperson recently confirmed that the X1 is still scheduled to find its way into the U.S. market sometime this month.

Sony Ericsson wasn't very specific about what was causing the production problems, saying only that they were caused by a lack of certain materials. "We don't want to go into detail regarding which materials are causing the problems," Sony Ericsson public-relations manager Gustaf Brusewitz explained to IDG.

According to FCC documentation, the X1 that'll ship in the U.S. will only sport a 3G band suitable for AT&T's high-speed cellular-wireless data network. T-Mobile users, should there ever be any, will have to make do with the far slower EDGE technology.

Sony Ericsson's released a software development kit (SDK) to allow developers to try their hand at building Xperia X1 Panels and applications in September. That way developers can make good use of the proprietary panel interface Sony Ericsson designed for the X1 that runs on top of Windows Mobile 6.1.

The Panels are lightweight applications that extend the phone's 'Today Screen' API to provide a fully customizable user interface on the XPERIA X1. The SDK will be available for free.

In addition to Windows Mobile 6.1, the Xperia X1 sports a unique arc slider design. So when you slide up the smartphone's high-resolution 3-inch, WVGA (840 x 480-pixel) touch screen, a wide QWERTY thumb-keyboard is revealed.

As a quad-band GSM phone, you'll be able to use the smartphone to make voice calls in most world markets.

There's also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS for location-based services, FM receiver and 3.2 megapixel camera for picture and video.

A microSD slot is available to compliment the X1's 400MB of internal memory with gigabytes of additional storage.

The smartphone measures 4.3 x 2.1 x 0.66 inches (110 x 53 x 16.7 millimeters) and weighs in at 5.1 ounces (145 grams).

See next page for a comprehensive list of the X1's specifications.