STOCKHOLM, Sweden- A Danish website dedicated to telecommunications and handsets has leaked images of Sony Ericsson's first Android handset, codenamed Rachael. Sourced from "internal documents" of Sony Ericsson, these leaked images clearly indicate a Xperia branding on the front as well as the back panels of the phone.

With Sony Ericsson going for Xperia branding, which has been the company's Windows Mobile-powered series, for the Android; it can be expected that the Japanese-Swedish joint venture will stick to Xperia branding for all its smartphones irrespective of their OS platform.

Mobil have also leaked images of another Sony Ericsson handset, Kiki, which has a revolutionary design for a handset; sporting transparent glass  for a screen, the device has a smooth surface keypad with tactile feedback.

Sony Ericsson Xperia 5 a.k.a Rachael

Source: Mobil

Sony Ericsson has been a member of Google's Open Handset Alliance (OHA) since December 2008, and to date, it hasn't launched any Android handset in the market. With the present Android market being dominated by HTC with 3 handsets and Samsung with 1 handset, a Sony Ericsson-branded Android phone may indicate wider acceptability of this open source platform. The manufacturer has been a supporter of Symbian platform, and was sceptical about joining OHA at the time of its inception in 2007. However, after joining the alliance in December 2008, Sony Ericsson has been dormant in the Android scene until recently.

As per the details from a report by Mobil, Sony Ericsson's first Android handset, codenamed Rachael, will be powered by Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon processor, which at 1 GHz is the fastest mobile processor today. Other leaked specifications include a large touchscreen (probably around 3.5" or higher), an 8.1 megapixel camera, HSPA connectivity, 3.5mm headphone jack, and most probably it lacks a physical QWERTY keyboard.

Pricing, availibility, and other specifications are not known as of now.

Sony Ericsson Kiki

Source: Mobil

Sony Ericsson's Kiki has a revolutionary design for a handphone with a transparent glass display and smooth surface keypad. Not much is known about the specifications of this model, but rumours suggest that images will be projected on to the transparent display, and the screen will be visible from both sides (front and back).

The design of keypad is radical as well, which has been speculated to be based on tactile feedback with either fixed or adaptive content on the panel. Further details are yet to be known.

While HTC has been dominating the Android segment with almost no competition from other OHA members, Sony Ericsson's entry into Android may just prove to be the impetus that Android platform has been waiting for. With Huawei, Acer, LG, and even Nokia rumoured to be launching their Android-powered sets in the near future, the platform is gaining increased industry and market acceptance by the day.