Sony Ericsson's carefully executed marketing plan to stir up the hype around their "next big thing" has suddenly gone all pants. First they had their "global announcement" page, which involved a timer counting down to the time of a big new announcement. This has turned out to be a Sony Ericsson watch (the MBW-150). Not exactly what you call a big new announcement.

Secondly, there's the announcement they're going to make in Berlin, which will apparently feature new mobile phones. Unfortunately, Gracenote has stolen their thunder a bit by revealing that the phones that will be announced will be the Sony Ericsson W910, W960 and K850 CyberShot phone.

The announcement itself is scheduled for just under an hour or so's time, so we'll get more details of the phones then. In the meantime, check out how Sony Ericsson will be using Gracenote in its phones after the jump.

From RCRNews:

Sony Ericsson has tapped Gracenote to power a sideloading-enabled mobile music platform.Sony Ericsson will embed the offering on all its music-enabled handsets starting with the new Walkman models W910, W960 and the K850 Cyber-shot.

The new platform includes features such as search and discovery, song identification and playlisting, and is designed to allow the easy transfer of tunes between home music libraries, online music stores and mobile phones. Users can search for music by typing in an artist, song, album or lyrics, and can use the search listings to learn more about the song, purchase a ringtone or full track or share music with a friend.

The service also includes a recommendation engine. Gracenote said Sony Ericsson will embed the offering on all its music-enabled handsets starting with the new Walkman models W910, W960 and the K850 Cyber-shot.

“Sony Ericsson is a the forefront of bringing groundbreaking handsets and services optimized for music, and Gracenote’s mobile music platform addresses the increased demand for the combined convenience of a mobile handset, online store and PC, and accelerates the potential of mobile music for both the consumer and the carriers through the integration of those three domains,” said Jim Hollingsworth, senior VP of sales and marketing for Gracenote.

This is clearly an attempt to stop the iPhone and its related iTunes in its tracks. Not quite the "Next big thing" I was hoping for though, and its overhyped Bluetooth watch was just a huge disappointment. Let's hope the phones that are announced will be more interesting.

More news very very soon!

[Source: RCRNews]