Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic are the first players to secure treasured singles spots for the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships, set to take place at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex in Doha, Qatar, from November 4-9, 2008. The world’s top eight singles players and top four doubles teams from the 2008 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour season will compete for the Championships title and a share of the record prize money of $4.45 million.

For Jankovic, the current world No.2, the 2008 Sony Ericsson Championships marks her second qualification for the prestigious year-end event. Jankovic, who has won six career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles, is projected to pass the $5 million mark in career prize money this week at the Rogers Cup presented by National Bank in Montreal. Thus far in the 2008 Tour season, she successfully defended her title at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, finished as runner-up at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami and reached the semifinals at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Barclays Dubai Championships in Dubai, the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Roland Garros in Paris and most recently the East West Bank Classic presented by Herbalife in Los Angeles.

"Qualifying for the Sony Ericsson Championships is always one of the important goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year,” Jankovic said. “Naturally I am proud to have achieved it at this early stage of the year. I look forward to competing in Doha and hope to do really well out there."

Ivanovic became the 17th No.1 ranked player in Tour history in June of this year after capturing her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros. She also won the title at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, finished runner-up at the Australian Open, and reached the semifinals at the Medibank International in Sydney as well as the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin. She was awarded the Tour’s “Most Improved Player” earlier this year (for 2007 achievements).

"I am proud to have already qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships,” Ivanovic remarked. “This 2008 season has been a great year for me, as I achieved two of my life's goals by winning my first Grand Slam and reaching No.1 in the rankings. To win the tournament in Doha would be the perfect end to a season that I will never forget."

“Jelena and Ana are amazing athletes and champions, both on and off the court,” said Larry Scott, CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. “Both players are fan favorites who have had fantastic results in 2008 and earned their spots in the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, which promises to be one of the most exciting season-ending finales in Tour history.”

“The Sony Ericsson Championships will be an exciting finale to what has been a fantastic year for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour,” said Aldo Liguori, Corporate Vice President and Head of Global Communications & PR for Sony Ericsson. “We are delighted to see that two of this season’s most successful players are the first to qualify for the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha. Both Ana and Jelena have worked hard to secure their place in this season-end tournament, and both are great ambassadors for the sport and the continuing effort to drive women’s tennis forward.”

Sony Ericsson is committed to bringing entertainment, innovation and glamour to tennis by creating unique sporting events such as the 2008 Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha. This tournament will bring the excitement of the game to a new audience, with the city of Doha set to benefit from the biggest tennis event ever to be held in the region. Sony Ericsson strives to energize the fan experience at the Championships, by bringing them closer to tennis through the integration of innovation and technology, to deliver the best possible sports experience.

The Championships were first played in 1972 and since then the event has been held in such notable venues as Madison Square Garden, New York City; the Olympiahalle in Munich; Staples Center in Los Angeles; and the Recinto Ferial Casa de Campo in Madrid. Former singles champions include Tracy Austin, Kim Clijsters, Chris Evert, Evonne Goolagong, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis, Martina Navratilova, Gabriela Sabatini, Serena Williams and Justine Henin. Cara Black and Liezel Huber, defending champions in doubles, currently lead in the Doubles Race to Doha with 3962 points followed by Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual.

RACE TO THE SONY ERICSSON CHAMPIONSHIPS - DOHA 2008
(as of the week of July 28, 2008)

SINGLES
PLAYER	POINTS	RACE STANDING (as of 7/28)
Jelena Jankovic**	2,770	1
Ana Ivanovic **	2,761	2
Serena Williams	2,590	3
Maria Sharapova	2,455	4
Elena Dementieva	2,051	5
Dinara Safina	1,998	6
Svetlana Kuznetsova	1,821	7
Venus Williams	1,766	8
Agnieszka Radwanska	1,727	9
Vera Zvonareva	1,559	10
Alize Cornet	1,068	11
Anna Chakvetadze	1,060	12
Flavia Pennetta	1,022	13
Patty Schnyder	1,016	14
Victoria Azarenka	953	15

DOUBLES
TEAM	POINTS	RACE STANDING (as of 7/28)
Cara Black & Liezel Huber	3,962	1
Anabel Medina Garrigues & Virginia Ruano Pascual	2,233	2
Alona Bondarenko & Kateryna Bondarenko	2,206	3
Chuang Chia-Jung & Chan Yung-Jan	2,194	4
Kveta Peschke & Rennea Stubbs	1,966	5
Yan Zi & Zheng Jie	1,773	6
Shahar Peer & Victoria Azarenka	1,655	7
Ai Sugiyama & Katarina Srebotnik	1,621	8

Today Sony Ericsson has announced recently leaked successor of the old Sony Ericsson T610, handset with codename Remi – Sony Ericsson T700.

Looks like Sony Ericsson T700 is practically some kind of redesign of the old Sony Ericsson T610 with the Sony Ericsson W890 hardware platform, which means once again we are getting the same phone with different design, but this time look of the handset will not be so different for Sony Ericsson users.

So I guess it’s not that hard to guess its specifications, if we’ll cut Walkman player from Sony Ericsson W890, it’s practically the same phone with almost same sizes.

So, Sony Ericsson T700 is equipped with a 2” TFT display with 262K colors and 240 x 320 pixels resolution and has a 3.2 MP camera with fixed focus and of course video recording, unfortunately there is no Auto Focus. T700 has high quality stereo speakers as in W890. Internal memory of the phone is up to 25MB and in addition box includes 512MB M2 memory card. The phone is quad-band GSM and intended to work in GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 - UMTS/HSDPA 2100 networks and supports all other standard Sony Ericsson stuff, like Google Maps, TrackID, PlayNow, Bluetooth with A2DP, FM radio, NetFront browser, e-mail and picture blogging, USB connectivity. The sizes of the housing is 104.0x47.0x10.0mm and weights 78.0 grams.

“Become a real head turner with the T700” said Sven Totté, Head of Marketing for the design category at Sony Ericsson. “Sleek and shiny, the slim elegance of the T700 gives users a premium experience at a mid-range price point - perfect for the design conscious. Everyone who bought and adored the iconic T610 will be keen to get their hands on the new T700.”

Sony Ericsson T700 will be available in selected markets in the colors Black on Silver, Black on Red and Shining Silver from early Q4 of 2008.

Sony Ericsson announces today that Anil Sethi has been appointed to the newly created position of President and Region Head of Sony Ericsson India with immediate effect.

Anil joins Sony Ericsson after almost 8 years with Sony Canada in Toronto, where his most recent position was Senior Vice President of Broadcast & Business Solutions and Systems Integration. Prior to this role, he completed a number of high profile international assignments within the Sony Group including, senior business and commercial roles in Europe, India, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. During this time Anil established and managed Sony’s first production facility in India and was closely involved in setting up the Sony Gulf regional operations, with its hub office in Dubai, and the Sony India organisation, headquartered in Delhi.

Commenting on Anil’s appointment, Sony Ericsson President Dick Komiyama said, “Today’s appointment underlines the growing strategic importance of India for Sony Ericsson. We are continuing to build our operations in this market – last year we established a manufacturing presence through partners and opened our own R&D unit in Chennai – and one of Anil’s focus areas going forward will be to drive our growth plan in India.”

“I am delighted to return to India and bring home my international business experience. The Indian marketplace is exciting and of strategic importance to Sony Ericsson. Our manufacturing presence and R&D in India is a reflection of our commitment to this great country and its growing consumer base.” said Anil.

Anil will be based at the Sony Ericsson offices in Delhi.

Today Sony Ericsson with exclusive partnership between the MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) Pictures/Columbia Pictures announced the launch of the limited edition Titanium silver C902 from Cyber-shot family, which after the silver Sony Ericsson K800 is the next phone used by the most famous super agent codenamed 007 - Bond, James Bond in the eagerly awaited "Quantum Of Solace" which will be released worldwide by November 2008.

I don't think that the phone will be preloaded with the rocket launcher, laser or other Bond stuff (So don't be disappointed :D), but it will surely will preloaded with an exclusive spy-style game, or with the trailer of the film, behind-the-scenes interviews with the stars and exclusive content such as wallpapers and screen savers will be available on the phone and the memory card (Oh, yes... And it will make you feel as a real SPY :D).

The C902 Cyber-shot phone is used throughout the film by James Bond (Daniel Craig) to capture evidence and assist the agent on his mission. The 5MP camera, with illuminated touch icons providing quick and easy access to camera options, Face detection, Photo flash and Auto focus enable James Bond to send high resolution shots back to MI6 for quick recognition of his enemies. The phone also offers BestPic which allows users to take nine pictures of a moving object simultaneously and choose the best shot to use, plus Picture blogging for uploading photos to blogsites and PictBridge for printing direct to a printer, without the need for a PC or laptop. Well, I don't think that Bond will start blogging but, he will print the pictures directly to the printer without a PC or laptop for sure :)

Lennard Hoornik, Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Marketing, Sony Ericsson comments:

“We are excited to announce the continuation of our relationship with the James Bond films and unveil James Bond’s new phone for this year - the limited edition version of our C902 Cyber-shot™ phone. With the rich array of content both on the phone and preloaded on a memory card bundled with the C902 Titanium silver limited edition, fans of the secret agent will only get more James Bond with Sony Ericsson.”

So, Bond's fans, limited edition of the Titanium silver Cyber-Shot C902, included with a memory card loaded with a host of 007 content will be available for a limited period. Don't lose your chance to get it ;)

The 3rd China Mobile Application Golden Olive Awards showcased China's mobile content industry and almost 200 items of content were submitted for the competition between April and June 2008. The award ceremony was held in Beijing, China on June 26, 2008 and Sony Ericsson Developer World was there to give the prizes to the winners of the 19 award categories sponsored by Sony Ericsson, in what translates from Chinese as the "Sony Ericsson Cup".

Sony Ericsson Developer World sponsored 19 award categories in the Golden Olive competition, known as the "Sony Ericsson Cup". Over 100 companies enrolled in the competition submitting nearly 200 items of content covering topics including Mobile 3D games, GPS applications, office applications, themes and mobile entertainment. Although there were some areas of duplication, there were many examples of imaginative content, which the judges and organizers considered demonstrated innovation and strength.

James Liu, Manager of Sony Ericsson Developer World in China, was delighted to see so many examples of high quality work and met many new developers at the Golden Olive Award ceremony on June 26, 2008 in Beijing.

"The Golden Olive Awards help Sony Ericsson source excellent new content and applications for Chinese Sony Ericsson mobile phones," said James Liu.

"The winners have shown consistently high development standards and these awards open a new era of co-operation between our development partners and Sony Ericsson Developer World."

The Sony Ericsson Cup winners will have the opportunity to have their content pre-loaded on selected Sony Ericsson mobile phone models and made available for download through Sony Ericsson's online content channels PlayNow, Fun & Downloads and the Application Shop. The developers of the winning content will also be invited to become Premier members of Sony Ericsson Developer World.

Check out the winners here (in Chinese)

[Source]