Sony Ericsson had a strong 2007, selling over 100 million mobile phones, and both their sales and profits all up, despite a range of phones that were largely based either on music (the Walkman phones) or photos (the Cybershot phones). No all-in-wonder phones for Sony Ericsson - just phones that offer a limited feature set, but implement each feature exceptionally well.

So what can we expect for 2008? Time to get the crystal ball out again, as we round-up all the rumours surrounding Sony Ericsson's 2008 mobile phones.

Sony Ericsson Walkman phones in 2008

Naturally there'll be many more Walkman phones released in 2008. The latest rumours (from Esato) suggest the following are on their way:

• Alona and Deena - Two standard Walkman phones.
• Sony Ericsson W750 - A high end flip phone, which may have the new UIQ user interface. Coming in silver and also green variants, the W750 will be a stylish phone with a special music dial and stereo speakers.
• Sony Ericsson W760i
  A Walkman phone with built-in GPS. The Sony Ericsson W760i has already been shown off at CES 2008, and should be ready for release in Q2 2008.
• Sony Ericsson W770 - A Slim Walkman Phone, the W770 will be a mid-range candybar. Features will include a 2.2" QVGA screen, non-Auto-Focus camera, and it'll be made of plastic.

W890i (W880i successor)
The W880i was one of Sony Ericsson's biggest hits last year. This year, they'll be improving it with the launch of the W890i (pictured left), which is of a similar size, but which comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera.

• W950 successor
  Does exactly what it says on the tin! No details yet, but watch this space...
• Sony Ericsson W980i - A high-end candybar phone that will be Sony Ericsson's direct competitor to the iPhone. The W980i is expected to have a PSP-style interface (similar to the K850/W910 Media interfaces). It will have a d-pad and six buttons, and no keypad at all, relying instead on a touchscreen for most functions. Interestingly, the W980i will also come with GPS, pitching it directly against the Nokia N95 and N82 as much as the iPhone.

Some of these phones are simply updated versions of existing phones already out, with a few enhanced tweaks. The W980i certainly looks interesting though, although whether it will actually come with internal GPS, or as an add-on unit, still isn't known. It'll be interesting to see how Sony Ericsson intends on combating the iPhone.

Sony Ericsson CyberShot phones

• Sony Ericsson Lai and Shio - Standard Cyber-shot phones.
• Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot clamshell - A black clamshell phone with a 5 megapixel camera, like the K850i.
• Sony Ericsson K860 - A redesigned K850 with a sliding lens cover, and more interestingly, mobile TV, and GPS.
• A Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot phone with optical zoom, to be released by Q2 of 2008.
• Sony Ericsson K850 successor - The next flagship Cyber-shot for 2008. Think 7+ megapixels, and possibly GPS
• Symbian Cyber-shot - A UIQ smartphone, which will be Cyber-shot branded.

Again, a series of phones that build on existing models. Nice to see a Cyber Shot phone coming with an optical zoom, and if the rumours of the K860 are true, that's going to be one tasty looking phone.

Interesting that Sony Ericsson plan on introducing a Symbian-based Cyber Shot smartphone as well.

Sony Ericsson Smartphones for 2008

Now this should whet your appetite for 2008. Sony Ericsson are apparently working on the Sony Ericsson P5i, a successor to 2007's P990.

Coming in a slider form factor, the P5i will be smaller and lighter than the P990, and will be equipped with a 2.8" VGA screen (yes, VGA), WiFi, a 5 megapixel camera with Auto Focus and flash, a built-in GPS module, and a super-fast 520MHz processor.

As you can see from the leaked pic, it looks set to come with a revolutionary new touch screen interface (well, revolutionary for Sony Ericsson, anyway!).

In short, the P5i looks set to become the smartphone of 2008 - at least until Nokia updates its glorious E90, anyway!

Other Sony Ericsson rumours for 2008

As well as all of these Walkman and CyberShot phones, there are a couple of other little nuggets

• A gaming phone. Not called a PSP phone, but nevertheless featuring top-end 3D graphics, a motion sensor and dedicated gaming buttons on the phone itself.
• A Windows Mobile-based Sony Ericsson phone. This will be the first for the company, as it's previously used Symbian and UIQ operating systems.
• High quality LCD screens that are much better than their competitors' screens.
• VGA resolution on some models takes Web browsing almost up to to desktop levels of resolution.
• A new line of high end phones called the Sony Ericsson Xperia range. Should compete directly with Nokia's N-Series range.

Summary

2008's Sony Ericsson rumours look particularly impressive, showing the company branching away from just releasing yet more camera phones and music phones. However, 2007's rumours also looked pretty tasty, too, but the reality was somewhat different.

I guess that's the problem with rumours - partly, they're based on the wishes of the fanboys rather than on reality, so some of these rumours need to be taken with a pinch of salt. However, with Sony Ericsson already announcing their first mobile phone with internal GPS (the Sony Ericsson W760i) at CES this year, plus a sneak peek of their new touchscreen UI last year, there's nothing in these specific rumours that's too outlandish. Sony Ericsson fans, you could be in for a bumper year!

Thanks to GoldenFace of Esato for his splendid Sony Ericsson rumour round-up.