Sony Ericsson, the new web-enabled mobile communication device manufacturer, announced the addition of some new mobile phones to its production line.

Officials said some of the new models are being shipped and will be available in the UAE market in a few weeks, others will be available around the third and fourth quarter.

The company sold 5.8 million units in the first quarter of 2002. Sales are expanding fast with its penetration in new markets, like the UAE.

"One of the new products, T200 will be available in the UAE in the next few weeks as they are being shipped," said Mats Paulson, general manager, Middle East and Africa for Sony Ericsson.

"The other products, T600 and P800 models will be available in the third quarter of this year and T300 model will be available in the fourth quarter," Mats Paulson said.

Sony and Ericsson joined hands to develop a new joint venture company Sony Ericsson in late 2001 which has launched some new models of mobile telephones equipped with a webcam that enables the user to capture a moment and e-mail the image to another user in a moment.

These telephones also come with multimedia messaging services with pictures, graphics, sound that helps a user to combine the three and create wonderful visuals and send messages and images through the mobile communication.

But unless the service provider upgrades the telecom infrastructure and offers the service for subscribers, the users of these mobile telephones will not be able to utilise the facilities.

Customers will have to wait for Etisalat to offer the new MMS services for the customers till late this year.

"Most of the telecom service providers in the Gulf have not yet made the MMS services available in the region. Some of them are currently testing the system and we hope they will make the service available by the end of the summer," Mats Paulson said.

"We are in talks with the telecom service providers in the region including Etisalat, Batelco and Qatar Telecom, among others. We expect them to launch the services by this year for the customers to make the best use of our technology which takes mobile communication a step further," Mats Paulson said.

Paulson said, the entry level models, such as T 200, T300 and T600 will have a retail price range between Dh500 to Dh800 respectively for the local market.