Sony Ericsson ushers new era of mobile gaming with support for hardware accelerated 3D graphics through OpenGL ES

Symbian Smartphone Show, London, October 17, 2006 – Sony Ericsson today announced its complete offering for OpenGL ES, the industry standard, cross-platform Application Programming Interface (API) enabling powerful 3D graphics on mobile phones. Following an extensive implementation program, Sony Ericsson’s support for OpenGL now includes in-market mobile phones and games, a Software Development Kit (SDK), developer tutorial and a discussion forum, all designed to accelerate the market for next generation mobile gaming.

Considered the de facto cross-platform API for 2D and 3D graphics, not only on gaming consoles but also for the next generation of mobile phones, OpenGL ES holds significant promise for new, more compelling gaming experiences. OpenGL ES offers the opportunity to improve the quality of mobile games significantly by enabling new graphic features, allowing the separate Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to handle all graphics rendering and freeing up Central Processing Unit (CPU) capacity for other calculations, which lead to better gaming performance.

Building upon its market leadership in Mobile Java™ 3D technology with over 40 phones and hundreds of games, Sony Ericsson is now working with Imagination Technologies to support application development for the three UIQ 3 based phones, the M600 messaging device, P990 smartphone and W950 Walkman® phone which all support OpenGL ES and feature full PowerVR® hardware 3D graphics acceleration. A comprehensive SDK for OpenGL ES including a step-by-step tutorial – an industry first for the Symbian platform – and a dedicated discussion forum are available for free from Sony Ericsson Developer World. There are already a number of gaming applications in development from key development partners which will soon be made available for download from the Sony Ericsson Application Shop.

“For those companies and individuals looking toward the ‘Next Gen’ of mobile gaming, there is no better time to invest than now. OpenGL ES will do for smartphones what Mobile Java 3D has already done for mass-market feature phones – it brings a powerful 3D experience to both casual and more advanced gamers who have come to expect high-performance gaming on Sony Ericsson phones,“ said Mikael Nerde, Head of Developer Program & Content Planning at Sony Ericsson. “We are extremely pleased to be the first to offer the tools, technology and know-how for OpenGL ES in the mobile space, considerably improving the quality of games whilst reducing development cycles and saving costs.”

The new SDK helps developers create compelling 3D graphics for mobile games and content, taking full advantage of the PowerVR 3D hardware acceleration technology from Imagination Technologies used on the Sony Ericsson P990, M600 and W950 phones.

“The PowerVR hardware acceleration core from Imagination Technologies delivers the performance needed to port console class games onto Sony Ericsson’s UIQ 3 based phones, delivering massive triangle and fill rates along with full 3D features for the best image quality and jaw-dropping 3D,” said Tony King-Smith, VP of Marketing at Imagination Technologies.

In a few easy-to-follow guidelines, the OpenGL ES tutorials included in the SDK help developers get started using the OpenGL ES 1.1 API, taking developers through initialization, how to render a triangle, 3D drawing, basic Texturing, Transform and Lighting, loading of textures and printing text on the screen, and handling optimized geometry including animations.

For further information please visit the Sony Ericsson Developer World portal at www.sonyericsson.com/developer.

Sony Ericsson Developer World is a global support program and web portal totally dedicated to helping serious, wireless developers achieve business success by providing the documentation, tools, training, technical and go-to-market support they need in their development process. Sony Ericsson Developer World helps developers get on the fast track from mind to market, thereby ensuring that a constant stream of fun, useful and innovative content and applications is available for Sony Ericsson phones. www.SonyEricsson.com/developer

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications serves the global communications market with innovative and feature-rich mobile phones, accessories and PC-cards. Established as a joint venture by Sony and Ericsson in 2001, with global corporate functions located in London, the company employs approximately 6,000 people worldwide, including R&D sites in Europe, Japan, China and America. Sony Ericsson celebrates the 5th anniversary of the start of the joint venture on 1st October, 2006.

Sony Ericsson is the global title sponsor of the Women’s Tennis Association, and works with the Association to promote the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in over 80 cities during the year. The tour culminates at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Spain, from 7 to 12 November. For more information on Sony Ericsson, please visit www.SonyEricsson.com

Any product features, specifications or statements in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual product features, specifications or forward-looking statements are subject to change.

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