SonyEricsson announces new "double-backed" mobile phone

Tokyo, 23 December 2005: Mobile phone manufacturer SonyEricsson today announced it would ship its rumoured "double-back" model, the SonyEricsson B800i in Q1 2005 worldwide. The company also released limited specifications for the new product, a radical low-end product solution dubbed "double-back" because it features a camera on the front, a camera on the back, but no screen, keyboard, or interface of any kind.

"The B800i is a convenient solution for the problem created in the manufacture of our best-selling "double-front" K700i handset," said a SonyEricsson spokesperson. "By incorporating the extra backs left-over from the manufacturing process of the K700i, we've been able to bring the B800i to market, setting a new low price-point for consumer handsets and functionality in the process."

The B800i's twin cameras record everything in front or behind the handset at all times, leading some analysts to predict privacy problems as phonecam addicts take not just candid shots of unsuspecting strangers in bathrooms and changerooms, but also shots of themselves self-pleasuring during the act.

More certain to appeal to consumer's battery life, since the B800i features twin LiOn battery packs, one on each back.

To appeal to cost-conscious low-end consumers, and because it has no keypad, it's not possible to make outgoing calls on the B800i, but owners can accept or terminate a call by tapping the handset firmly against a solid object such as a wall, or by removing both of the batteries.