Reading the press release carefully, some of the software will be in the form of “Try and Buy” software – in other words these are demo versions, much the same as shareware applications. Thankfully the rest of the press release does make clear those areas where you only get a demo, but note that over half of the bundled 64Mb Memory Stick will be demo software familiar to long time UIQ users.
Probably the main focus is in strengthening the communications aspects of the device. As with every enterprise device, the P990 will support push email. Sony Ericsson, as with every other Symbian OS device manufacturer, has failed to choose just one implementation, allowing the markets to decide. Given the huge amount of patent litigation in this area, that’s not surprising, although the Ericsson Mobile Office variant is included as a “Try and Buy” application. Support is available for AlteXia, iAnywhere OneBridge, Intellisync, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, RIM’s BlackBerry Connect, Seven and Visto, along with the ability to use idling IMAP on a compliant IMAP server.
VPN support is included for free with a Sony Ericsson solution powered by Certicom, while those of you worried about the virus and malware threat to mobile phones can see how much difference the MacAfee VirusScan and Firewall software can make as part of the ‘Try and Buy’ packages.
Opera 8 is to be used as the Internet browser and the QVGA screen will be able to show web pages in landscape mode. There’s also support for RSS News Headlines, but it's not clear how this will happen. It could be part of Opera, part of Messaging or a separate application. Given the Wi-Fi connectivity, I hope they ensure that I can download podcasts directly to the P990 into the MP3/Media player.
Business users have an interesting new application to play with that turns the camera into a business card scanner. The promise is that you can take a picture of collected cards, and these will be translated into your Contacts application. There have been some PC peripherals that do this, and it will be interesting to see how this works in the real world.
Previous P-Series phones have used games to show off their best features (think Stunt Car Racer in the P910 package) and the P990 allows Gameloft’s Vijay Singh Pro Golf 2005 to step up to the tee to demonstrate the 3D graphics capability of the phone (including the hardware acceleration).