Sony Ericsson announced Friday that the Qriocity video service is now available for users of Xperia phones in Australia and eight other new markets.

The Qriocity service complements Sony Ericsson's recently announced cloud based digital music service Music Unlimited. The video service will initially be available on two devices -- the Xperia mini and Xperia mini pro.

Qriocity will be available in nine markets with localisation of content and movies -- UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan, Canada and the United States -- starting Aug. 1.

The mobile version of the video service is currently exclusive to Sony Ericsson 2011 Xperia smartphones and will be made available to Xperia arc, Xperia neo, Xperia PLAY, Xperia pro, and Xperia acro through a software upgrade later this year. The service will be available on Xperia active and Xperia ray when they launch.

Qriocity is electronics giant Sony Corporation's streaming music, games, e-books and video on demand services.

Sony Ericsson's Mattias Holm said in a blog post, "If you love movies as much as us, we expect you will be excited to hear about the upcoming phased launch of the video service for Xperia phones starting on August 1st. The service will provide you with an intuitive and user friendly way to buy or rent movies and TV shows from NBC, Universal International Television Distribution, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution as well as local studios. All the latest releases will be available along with an extensive back catalogue."

The video service will automatically appear on Xperia smartphones which have been upgraded with this software and users will also be able to download the video service application from Android Market.

Xperia Mini Pro

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro "puts incredible capability into an amazingly compact smartphone," according to Telstra's Web site. "You'll be able to find what you need and do what you want, quickly and easily, with the compact touch screen's customisable four corners and flexible navigation tools."

Powered by Google's Android 2.1 operating system, the Xperia X10 Mini Pro can be upgraded with thousands of apps and software from the Android Market.

The Mini Pro also has a music player, crystal clear video playback, the 5 MP auto-focus camera, easy YouTube access, hands-free stereo bluetooth, and video calling capabilities.

The Mini Pro is an upgrade to the X10 Mini. The major differences between the original X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro are a slide-out full QWERTY Keyboard, a replaceable battery and the Pro's slightly larger dimensions. The devices' internal specifications are mostly identical.

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