Behind the scenes, out of sight of the high street consumer, phone manufacturers are playing a very competitive game of who’s got the largest … number of Megapixels that is. Companies are quick to announce that they will be producing the ‘next biggest thing’ with more pixels than ever before, only to have another company do them one better in the firecely contested camera wars, and here’s a great example.

Sony Ericsson proudly announced a handset in the process of production, the Satio (originally met as the Idou) in February of this year, sporting amongst other fantastic features a 12 Megapixel camera, set to be the first to appear on a mobile phone. Or so they thought.

Samsung, in assured smugness, has dethroned Sony Ericsson with information that they will have the Pixon 12 up for sale at least 2 months before the expected Q4 release for the Satio. The Samsung Pixon 12 is set to be available for purchase on August 1st, a short 9 months after the original Pixon M8800 was released, in November 2008. The information has leaked just 19 days before the said release date, which leaves practically no hope for Sony Ericsson to react to the news.

In the UK the Pixon 12 will be available exclusively from the 4U group of outlets and online stores for August and September, after which time it will be fair game for all.