I am very happy to let you know that Sony Ericsson announced our new WebSDK in colloboration with Open Source framework called Phone Gap. Check out the details regarding the SDK from developer.sonyericsson.com/websdk and about Phone Gap from www.phonegap.com. The SDK enables you to develop innovative cross-platform application using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on our flagship Android based Xperia X10 & Symbian Satio devices. The web applications can have access to location, accelerometer, contacts, media and several other platform capabilities on X10 and Satio. We think this enables you to truly develop device based packaged web applications that takes advantage of platform capabilities across X10 and Satio. With web kit you can have get great rendering of the apps on the device as well.

We actually developed an app for X10 using the WebSDK to illustrate the capabilities of the SDK & Phone Gap framework in colloboration with a small company called Digital Dandelion.http://digitaldandelion.net/ This app is based on a competition that Sony Ericsson is sponsoring called Mavericks Surf Challenge. http://www.maverickssurf.com. Download the application on your Google Android device by searching for Mavericks in Google's Marketplace. This application was developed with web components using WebSDK and really shows the capabilities of the WebKit on Android Xperia X10 with Sony Ericsson WebSDK. I have attached couple of screenshots of the apps and would really like to thank Digital Dandelion http://digitaldandelion.net/  for their great work with this in a very short span of time. Check out the sample app from the websdk by downloading from developer.sonyericsson.com/websdkand participate in the competition and develop great apps for X10 and Satio http://tinyurl.com/ybel9so

I wanted to kick start this blog with introduction to Panels and new Panel SDK for Xperia X2. Panels are simply applications which are easily discoverable on the home screen of the Xperia X2 device. The Panel UI allows for easy discoverability, navigation and configuration (e.g. the user can configure a panel to show at a particular time of the day).

The Panelizer is the new tool for Xperia X2 that converts existing flash lite, java and native applications to panels. This is a desktop tool to wrap the SWF, JAR/JAD, EXE, or NET file with icons, metadata and libraries specific to each platform (i.e. flash lite, java, and native). The resulting panelized application (in cab format) can be deployed and launched from the panel manager.

The value proposition for developers is simple that one can reuse their existing flash, java and native applications and convert to Panels using the new Panelizer tool. Further panels are available for purchase or free download and developers can submit Panels to the Sony Ericsson sales and distributions channels (Play Now Arena) reaching millions of users and monetize their existing content.

In the next few posts, I will provide more details on the development using Panel SDK. Meanwhile, please download the new Panel SDK for Xperia X2 and check the Panelizer tool. It available at –

http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/docstools/windowsmobile/p_windowsmobile.jsp