The FINANCIAL -- Handset maker Sony Ericsson unveiled its new X10 flagship mobile phone on November 3. The phone is based on a new UX platform which is built on top of Google Android.

The Xperia X10 has an eight megapixel camera, touch screen, GPS and can use apps from the Android Market or SonyEricsson's Play Now Arena, according to BBC. The X10, known as Rachel while under development, will go on sale early in the first quarter of 2010.

Android has gained a lot of traction this year as handset vendors look for ways to beat Apple's iPhone (AAPL.O), Reuters reported. Loss-making Sony Ericsson, the world's fourth largest handset maker, has suffered since 2008 from a lack of attractive high-end models in its offering, and saw overall third-quarter sales shrink 45 percent year-on-year.

The interface – known as the UX platform – will be overlaid on the existing Google Android foundations to provide "unrivalled" integration of social media services, and Sony Ericsson says it will be the first mobile phone to "truly humanise the way people interact with their phones", Telegraph informs. "We are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and demonstrating that anything consumers can imagine, we can make possible," said Rikko Sakaguchi, an executive vice president with Sony Ericsson. "With the X10, we are raising the bar we have set ourselves with entertainment-rich phones like Aino and Satio by making communication more fun and playful, multiplying and enriching opportunities to connect.”

SonyEricsson said it had given the phone's user interface an overhaul to help owners organise their use of sites such as Twitter, Facebook as well as e-mail and other messaging applications, BBC reported. The phone can work with second and third generation mobile networks, including HSPA, as well as wi-fi.

The X10 runs version 1.6 of Android and inside has a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor from US chip firm Qualcomm, according to the same source. No information has been given on price or the countries where the phone will be available.