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If you’re wondering where your update to Ice Cream Sandwich is for your Sony Ericsson Xperia phone, you’ve a little longer to wait, I’m afraid. Sony has announced the latest version of Android will reach the 2011 Xperia range in mid-April, with some not seeing the update until the summer.
Sony initially announced the rollout would start mid-March, but that didn’t happen. Something to do with Sony dropping Ericsson perhaps? It’s undoubtedly had its plate full these last few months, so a delay was inevitable.
The first handsets to get the update will be the Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Xperia Ray. The update will start mid-April and continue over four to six weeks, so it could be June before you see the update.
The next phones to get served a portion of Ice Cream Sandwich are the Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, Xperia Neo, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Active and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman. These will get the bump starting at the end of May or early June, and presumably the rollout will take another four to six weeks at least.
Sony is offering the update only via your PC Companion and Bridge for Mac, instead of over the air. You also won’t get any update requests or notifications, so it looks like you’ll need to keep checking manually, which is a bit of a pain. Sony claims this is because ICS could actually hamper performance on some handsets — there’s a handy guide to learn more here.
Sony released a beta of ICS for the Xperia Play yesterday, but it’s only really for developer types. If you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing, best stay away.
This delay is nothing compared to the Samsung Galaxy S2 though — owners of SIM-free S2 handsets may have to wait until the end of April, after being promised it more than a month earlier. And those S2 owners on networks already have the update. This has left some understandably irate.
What do you think about the updates? Some handsets won’t get Ice Cream Sandwich until Android Jelly Bean is announced, after all. Should everyone find a way to get them to us sooner? Let me know in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.
