The big announcement coming out of the Sony Ericsson press conference tonight – the evening before the opening of the Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona, Spain – is that their new Xperia Play “gaming device” will ship in the U.S.A. this March and will ride on Verizon’s network. That’s what everyone was interested in and the crowded demo booths were a testament to its popularity (video coming soon, check back). However Sony Ericsson also revealed that their new strategy is to provide multiple devices for multiple lifestyles and all on the Android Gingerbread platform. This new family of devices focus on melding communication with entertainment within different consumer lifestyle segments. It seems to break down to the ARC and the Neo, being different flavors of premium android goodness, especially with a focus on video, while the Pro focuses on Messaging and the Play is obviously for gaming.
Plus further partnerships with Sony for a soon-to-be-launched PlayStation App Store experience, hint at where the future of Sony’s gaming console is headed.