Sony Xperia Play won't get Android 4.0 because "stable experience" cannot be guaranteed in ICS

Sony Xperia Play won’t get Android 4.0 because “stable experience” cannot be guaranteed in ICS

May 25, 2012 | by Andrew Kameka

Sorry, Sony fans, but so much for Ice Cream Sandwich. Despite originally including the Xperia Play among the list of devices first promised to receive an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Sony has backtracked and said that the Play will not receive ICS after all.

Sony had originally stated that all of its 2011 line of Xperia phones would be updated, and it has mostly been on track to keep that promise. However, the Xperia Play has been removed from the list of devices because of problems associated with the upgrade to Android 4.0.

A member of the Sony Mobile team has confirmed that because the team was unable to develop an ICS-based ROM it could guarantee was a “consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming,” the update was scraped. There are no further plans to introduce Android 4.0 to the Xperia Play.

This news will likely disappoint many Xperia Play users, especially when considering that Sony managed to develop an Android 4.0 ROM good enough for beta testing in March. But it was that very ROM, which pointed out several bugs and problems that the company was unable to overcome, that led to the decision to keep the Xperia Play on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Our priority has and always will be, to provide the best possible user experience on Xperia smartphones. In this instance the ICS upgrade would have compromised stability, where we look to ensure a quality gaming experience with games optimized and developed for Xperia PLAY.

Sony Mobile

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Android Ice Cream Sandwich Update, firmware upgrade, Sony Mobile, Xperia Play

2 Comments

sharonlewis says:

May 28, 2012 at 2:34 am

Personally I don’t like this phone, but besides that it’s a really good android device.
luis says:

June 1, 2012 at 5:55 am

It´s not only the Play. I just bought an xperia Arc S and the upgrade is not available either. A sticker on the box say´s it´s upgradable to Android 4 but only after you buy the phone and check the “IS” number under the battery can you discover that your specific phone is not on the list for upgrades (and the list is closed – so they say). I sent the phone to Sony technical services and they sent it back exactly the same saying that an upgrade is not possible. I can think of many adjectives to Sony’s behaviour but I will keep it civilized, for now.

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