PlayStation Phone May Launch April 2011

The phone is slated to launch in February 2011 however it may not reach shelves until April.

Recent reports have indicated that Sony Ericsson plans to reveal the Android-powered PlayStation Phone (Z1) at the Mobile World Congress convention held in Barcelona on February 14 – 17, 2011. The news was backed by Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg himself who hinted to the device and said that he wanted to generate a lot of "noise" at the event.

However additional details have now surfaced revealing that the company will actually launch the phone during Sony Ericsson's press conference held on Sunday evening, February 13, 2011. Sources close to the matter said that while the phone may officially launch in February, it won't actually show up on UK store shelves until April 2011. That said, the North American release may not hit shelves until after E3 which takes place in June 2011.

Another report indicates that the Sony Ericsson Z1 (PlayStation Phone) may actually be named Xperia Play. The news stems from a trademark registration by Sony Ericsson EU for the Xperia Play name. Xperia Play domain names have also been registered by SE PR firm Jung Relations including XperiaPlay.com, .net, and .org.

When finally revealed, the PlayStation Phone-- or whatever name SE eventually decides upon-- will supposedly come packed with a 1 GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 1 GB of ROM, and a screen size somewhere around 3.7 to 4.1-inches. As seen in previous videos and images, it will also feature a slide-out controller setup similar to the PSPgo and use Google's Android 2.3 aka Gingerbread.

Recently Sony revealed that a PlayStation App for the Android and iOS platforms was in the works, however it wasn't developed for playing games, but rather to serve as a PlayStation Network companion. The app's icon resembles the one seen on recent pictures of the PlayStation Phone's home screen.