Sony Ericsson releases Xperia X1 SDK for developers

Sony Ericsson is preparing for a big push with its Xperia X1 smartphone, which is due to be released later this year. And that now includes a drive to get developers creating content for the Windows Mobile handset.

The company has published its SDK for the X1 today, and wants developers to start creating games (but also music, photography, email/IM, social networking and video applications) for the device.

Sony Ericsson is talking up the 'interactive panels' which function as the X1's touchscreen interface, with users able to pick and choose from panels created by developers.

It's still unclear what exactly this means from a gaming point of view. One approach would be for a publisher to create its own X1 panel acting as a dynamically-updating catalogue of its mobile games.

However, if these panels are full applications, then there's nothing to stop developers creating dedicated X1 games for the phone. Sony Ericsson is making 3D gaming one of its selling points, after all.

Want to investigate the X1 SDK? You'll be able to download it here as soon as it's posted by Sony Ericsson..

It'll include an X1 emulator, Microsoft Visual Studio templates, developer guidelines, API reference documentation, tutorials and sample code.