Sony Ericsson and Vodafone today announce the launch of the F500i camera phone, exclusively available on Vodafone live!TM, Vodafone's industry leading multi media consumer service. Featuring a large colour screen, integrated still and video camera and support for music ringtones, the F500i offers consumers even greater opportunities to enjoy high quality games as well as an extensive range of services available on Vodafone live!TM. The F500i will be sold across Vodafone live! markets, from the middle of July.
The F500i is designed specifically to help Vodafone meet the needs of consumers who increasingly want to get more out of multimedia services. Vodafone live!TM brings together an extensive range of services including colour picture messaging, the best in colour gaming, the largest catalogue of realistic music ringtones, alerts and information in colour and with pictures, immediate links to additional exciting content such as picture and text messaging, music, sport and news, all from an easy-to-use picture menu, available any time, any where.
"The Sony Ericsson F500i is the latest exciting addition to our range of Vodafone exclusive handsets allowing customers easy access to Vodafone live!TM services," said Guy Laurence, Vodafone's Global Marketing Director of Products and Services. "With the growing popularity of high quality, easy-to-use camera phones and the continued high interest in games, the F500i is well positioned to appeal to a broad range of consumers keen to combine the excitement of gaming on their handset with a host of features, allowing them even more ways to keep in touch with their friends and family".
"We are very excited about expanding our collaboration with Vodafone and bringing the F500i to the market, as we share their passion for compelling mobile entertainment services," says Jan Wäreby, Corporate Executive Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing at Sony Ericsson. "Our focus on easy-to-use camera phones has been well appreciated by consumers around the world and with the F500i, we also offer a great gaming experience to Vodafone live!TM users."
Dual front design
The F500i promotes the use of imaging by its ease-of-use and dual front design concept, allowing both telephony and camera features on the same handset. A dedicated camera button on the side of the phone gives fast and easy access to the camera; it only takes a few clicks to take and send an image or a video clip. The camera features a 4x digital zoom and its 128x160 pixels, 65,536 TFT colour screen presents video, images and games with great clarity and resolution.
Games and more
With its colour screen and MultiActionTM joystick, the F500i gives a superior gaming experience. It features a graphics platform especially suitable for graphically rich mobile applications and content, Mascot Capsule(r) Engine Micro3D Edition and a wide variety of great games will be available for download from the Vodafone live!TM portal. Compatible with the Gameboard EGB-10, the F500i can easily be transformed into a full-fledged gaming machine.
Imaging and Messaging
- 128 x 160 pixels Display TF
- 65,536 Colour screen
- 10 MB user Memory
- QuickShareTM
- SMS, EMS and MMS
- 3D graphics (animations and pictures)
- Wallpapers
- Themes
- Picture phonebook
Entertainment
- Polyphonic (40 tones)
- Music DJ TM
- Direct links for easy download
- Java MIDP 2.0
- DRM (forward lock and SD support)
- 3D games
- USB and RS 232
- WAP 2.0
- GPRS class 10
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB serves the global communications market with feature-rich mobile phones, accessories, PC-cards and M2M solutions. Established as a joint venture by Ericsson and Sony in 2001, with head quarters in London, the company employs 4,000 people worldwide, including R and D sites in Europe, Japan, China and America. For more information, please visit www.SonyEricsson.com
About Vodafone
Vodafone is the world's largest mobile community, with equity interests in 26 countries and Partner Networks in a further 13 countries, serving over 133 million proportionate customers. Vodafone's global consumer service offering, Vodafone live!TM, opens up a world of mobile colour communication, bringing news, information, e-mail, chat, location-based services, games and shopping to customers' mobile devices.
Press Contacts:
Sony Ericsson Corporate Communications
Telephone: +44 (0) 208 762 5858
E-mail: info@SonyEricsson.com
Vodafone Group
Aileen Thompson
Tel. +44 (0) 1635 683371
Jon Earl / Janine Young / Emma Conlon
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 673310
(c) Vodafone Group 2004. Vodafone and Vodafone live! are trade marks of the Vodafone Group. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trade marks of their respective owners.