[Sony Xperia P, U, Sola, Go] adsada arc:
This is really disappointing in many ways, and its stuff like this that's making it very hard for me to keep supporting sony. I'll explain, so remember the X10? released on 1.6 it was told a 2.1 upgrade was to come later on despite already being outdated. SE at the time had focused so much on their timescape look that they didn't have time to release it on up to date firmware. And this didn't pay off because their skin was heavy, buggy and slow. Eventually 2.1 came with improvements, and after a long fight they eventually gave the phone 2.3.

Now I can remember at the time (it was only almost 2 years, start of 2011) that they apologised and stated that they had learnt from their mistakes and would be upgrading in a timely manner. This was backed up by the fact their new 2.3 timescape was light and easy to update the software (as it wasn't tied into the phone as much as sense etc. is).

What also gave me confidence was that they released the Xperia arc on 2.3, once of the first manufacturers to release a phone on that version since the nexus device. That year of 2011 I was very impressed with many updates proving extra features, fb intergrating Xloud. They also gave the phone all the features the new arc s had (panoramic photos etc.).

ICS 4.0 was revealed at the end of 2012 and it was pretty exciting, what was more impressive was that SE stated they would update all their 2011 devices to ICS no matter if they were lowend, or highend. I was pretty proud to own an arc, and it really make sony look like a good company and was met with lots of positive feedback.

However the software received when it finally came out (June 2012 time) it was full of bugs and pretty unusable (in my experience). I could appreciate the time it took them because they were update all their phones and it takes time. But the software they released was a joke, and this is when it started to go downhill for me.

I got my xperia S in April time and at the time, was released on gingerbread 2.3. I thought, you know what I don't mind its a very stable release and works well, plus sony say the ICS update will be released soon after the phone goes on the market. What I didn't realise was that the 2011 phones would get the update first. So after waiting and waiting eventually I got the update, and yeah the battery life sucked but I liked all the additions and was mostly pretty pleased with the update; but it was far long overdue.

Fast forward to now, and sony has released their new devices...on ICS promising an update 'soon after launch'. When I heard this, I thought yeah I do not buy this I bet people will be waiting for this update long into 2013. And sure enough sony specify a date in March 2013. A good 5 months after the release of the phone. To make matters worse they aren't updating their 2011 devices.

I personally think this isn't good enough, though for the 2011 devices in theory owners should be thinking, "oh well, at least I've got a really good phone that works well on ICS" but the true fact is, it doesn't. So now sony is leaving the 2011 phones on ICS. I also fully appreciate that companies need to make money and can't keep updating legacy devices. But what annoys me is that they don't come out and say this, but make the old "guarantee owners of these smartphones the user experience you expect and we demand" which is utter BS. I mean, you stuck ICS on the phones, badly, but the jump from 2.3 to 4.0 is far bigger than 4.0 to 4.1 and I just don't buy the excuse. Plus the fact you have to laugh that they state user experience when they gave 2011 xperia users such a bad update to ICS...

As for an Xperia S owner, I am happy that we will get 4.1 in due course. Although who knows when that might be...

But basically to sum up, Sony/SE seem to be right back where they were 2 years ago getting such bad criticism for releasing phones on outdated software. But this time around it seems like they don't care and seem think its fine what they are doing. 2011 was such a good year for the company, and gave back much lost confidence in the brand. But its sad to see this happening again.