There has been a lot a of speculation this week about whether the X1 will be released on time or not. Sony Ericsson has contradicted previous reports on the web that it’s first Windows Mobile based device would not arrive by the end of the year. Indeed there had been some confusion with SE themselves originally stating a second half of 2008 release which then turned into September and now we are back to Q4 2008. So it looks like it will go to the wire. Anyhow Sony Ericsson is obviously keen for developers to start working on applications for its Xperia X1 and today it announced a tailor-made SDK (software development kit) for the upcoming smartphone.
A beta version of the Sony Ericsson SDK for Windows Mobile 6.1 is available for download from the company Web page. Apparently it has already been used in-house and by some SE partners to develop panels for the user interface, according to Merran Wrigley, spokeswoman at Sony Ericsson. The SDK is based on Microsoft Visual Studio, with extensions for the Xperia panel interface. “It will feel very familiar to existing Windows Mobile developers,” said Wrigley. Using the SDK developers can adapt existing Windows Mobile applications, and start working on new ones. It currently supports HTML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), C and C++.
A release date for the final version of the SDK has yet to be confirmed.
