Is it coz I is black?
It's not easy for mobile phone operators to get exclusives these days - even Apple has opened-up access to the iPhone - so they're sometimes reduced to stretching the definition of the term a tad.
Mobile operator Orange today announced it had secured an exclusive on Sony Ericsson's first Android smartphone - the Xperia X10. The nature of this exclusive, however, is restricted to the colour, as Vodafone has already revealed it will stock the X10 too. But you can only get a white one from Orange, it seems.
Both operators will offer the phone sometime next month, and it marks a significant roll of the dice for Sony Ericsson, which has seen its market share decline as it's been relatively slow to jump on the smartphone bandwagon. Having said that, it's trying hard to make up for lost time, with a cool-looking mini version of the X10 having already been unveiled.
"We're really pleased to be working with Sony Ericsson to help bring their first Android device to UK customers," said Francois Mahieu, director of devices for Orange UK. "The exclusive white Xperia X10 allows users to make the most from their social relationships, whether over a call or online and is a great addition to our ever expanding range of Android devices."
Incidentally, we've also received an update from Vodafone on the HTC Magic botnet issue we reported on earlier this month:
Vodafone takes the security and quality of its products and services very seriously. After becoming aware of a security issue referred by a customer, Vodafone Spain has conducted an intensive investigation and has concluded that the cause is a batch of infected memory cards. This is just a local incident in Spain.
The customers that could be affected by this incident have been already identified and Vodafone Spain is sending them a new memory card. In addition, Vodafone Spain will provide these customers with tools to verify and fix the integrity of their devices.
