The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc is an Android smartphone launched on 24 March 2011 in Japan, and 1 April 2011 in Europe. It belongs to Sony's large family of Xperia smartphones and tablets. This family was launched in 2008 by a joint-venture initiated in 2001 between Sony and Ericsson. Sony bought Ericsson's stake in the joint-venture in 2012 and since 2012 all new Xperia products have been branded only Sony. The Xperia arc is also known as Anzu or X12 or LT15i, LT15a... (the ending letter, in the 'LT15~' names -also often written with small caps 'lt15~'-, indicates different models, in particular related to geography.)