I'm not sure about this. Personally, I think this is an elaborate hoax. It looks good, granted, but, well...
Frankly, if this actually managed to get out and people now get to see this prototype, then Sony should be kicking themselves insanely hard. I mean, this, like many other advanced phones, are basically attempts at knocking the iPhone off of its pedestal. One of the keys to doing that is secrecy and blindsiding Apple, because having this slip out could just reveal the potential strengths and weaknesses of the phone before its even out, which their competitors could exploit, not to mention a confirmation that it could be coming down the pipe very soon. Thus, they really aren't going to want this revealed to anyone for the time being. So, I guess what it comes down to is: a) Sony is really terrible at security and should really choose better people for hanging around their prototypes, or b) someone mocked this thing up to BS a whole bunch of people. I kind of want to believe that Sony couldn't possibly be this terrible at keeping secrets.
There's also the possibility that this is an intentional leak, but I can't imagine why they'd bother with so much time left before its launch. No real strategic value in that.
Either way, I wouldn't be bandying this sort of thing about when Apple has 50 billion dollars burning a hole in its pocket and is looking for potential acquisitions.
