A concrete date at last, Katshing.se (and they should know, being in the same country as Sony Ericsson) have the P990i down for being in stock on July 18th. Still early days for firmware though, judging from the bug reports about the M600i from around the world.
Read on in the full article.
I completely agree about your comments on early days for firmware.. .
I know must of us geeks cant wait to get our hands on these new toys but I ordered what I believe to be one of the first E61s. It actually came with a cr@ppy little manual in black & white. The writing so tiny & badly printed you needed a microscope to read it. (I suspect this was actually a preview model for reviewers)?
This version was so buggy that I returned it for replacement. My new one has a newer firmware version (as well as a proper colour manual & the correct charger). ...it still has it's quirks but they aren't critical & hopefully they'll be fixed in a firmware update.
Still, I'd wait a couple of weeks before shelling out for a brand new model next time.