Sony Ericsson
Xperia Play

The much-leaked Xperia Play (model number: R800i) had been rumoured for months before it was eventually unveiled at the Mobile World Congress event in 2011. Ahead of launch, it had been widely referred to as the "PSP phone" or "PlayStation phone". In the end, it appeared Sony Ericsson was unable to secure the rights to use either of these Sony brands and used the name Xperia Play. There was little to indicate the device had any association with the PlayStation brand apart from a tiny, somewhat anonymous "PS certified" logo on the bottom left-hand side of the slide-out controller. This meant little or nothing to many consumers. Furthermore, although the Xperia Play shipped with several pre-installed PlayStation titles, the PlayStation Suite service and its accompanying store was not avaiable until "later in 2011". In the intervening period, users had to download games from Android Market. Despite these shortcomings, the Xperia Play got an extremely positive reception when it was announced. It offered a highly differentiated smartphone in a sea of Android ubiquity and Sony Ericsson got credit for exploiting its parentage to gain access to this technology ahead of its rivals.