O2 customers with a Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray, Xperia Arc or Xperia Neo aren't getting Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Although Sony has sent the update winging its way to unlocked phones, O2 isn't happy with the update and has decided Ray, Arc and Neo owners will have to do without.
Android updates are released by Google to the manufacturers of the phones, like Sony, who test the software with each phone. If they're happy, the update goes straight to customers with unlocked phones, and to the phone networks for them to test with their locked phones.
"Often the software passes our testing," O2 explains, but "sometimes we spot a few small issues that our testing team quickly work to fix.
"Unfortunately with the Xperia Ray, Arc and Neo our testing found that the software update affected the phone's speed and performance. These issues were present on three separate versions of the Android 4.0 software we tested and are caused by the software having more advanced hardware requirements than previous versions."
Sony itself acknowledges that the performance of your phone could be affected because of the hardware demands of Ice Cream Sandwich, with Motorola also making a similar point.
"Because you can't revert back to an earlier version of Android without having your phone completely restored, we have decided not to approve the update... these phones will remain on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is a very stable platform."
Sony began updating the unlocked versions of all its 2011 Xperia line-up a few months ago, apart from the Xperia Play. The gaming handset was dropped from the Ice Cream Sandwich update list earlier this summer. Meanwhile, the current flagship Xperia, the Sony Xperia S, had problems with the update but is now back on track.
Updating to Ice Cream Sandwich should cheer us up, but no: a newer version of Android has arrived, so even when your phone is fully Ice Creamed up, we're upset that -- like the Xperia Arc S -- it's not getting Jelly Bean. We're never happy, are we?
Should networks and manufacturers take a stand when they don't think an update is up to scratch, or do you think you should have the right to take your chances? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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anonymous 3 September, 2012 19:16
I traded in my Sony Xperia S because it was really unstable with the ICS update.
The 'phone - previously fine with Android 2.3 - would ring with no "incoming call" screen, no notifications for text messages, random signal loss or dropped calls, video corrupted when transferred to the PC... absolute horror show.
It was an absolute nightmare. Fair play, CPWH and and the technicians at O2 were as helpful as possible, but nothing could make up for the dreadful software. Shame on Sony for rushing the update to market (if you can call a 9-month old update rolled out over a month across global regions a "rush").
Ruffus Stone 3 September, 2012 22:16
Nothing really new in this.
It happens with each new version of Android and successive generations of new phones.
The chances are that you won't be able to upgrade to the new version of the OS and unsurprisingly, most phones never get an update as Mmost users don't seem to care either.
Even today, two thirds of all Android phones on sale, or offered on phone contracts, come with 2.3 Gingerbread or an early version. Meanwhile the OS has moved two versions on, past ICS to Jelly Bean.
anonymous 4 September, 2012 09:16
I updated my Arc S to 4.0 right away so it now has the same O.S as my Asus TF3000 which is helpful. I like the phone and it seems to work fine. Love the O.S itself, Koi carp are mint. I can spend all day making ripples and feeding them.
I didn't restart my pc after installing the sony ericsson software, before trying to update, so it failed to update to 4.0 a few times then i restarted the pc and it all went fine so keep that in mind.
It is so nice that you get everything in the pack,the software and lots of aps. I got nack all with my Nokia.
No idea how it compares to an I phone don't have one dont want one, but i will say that it has to be much harder to make an O.S that is reliable on so many different makes of phone with different specs sizes and performance: It must take a high level of co-operation which is a wonderful thing in this day and age, I am prepared to tolerate a few glitches, if there comes any, to maintain a freedom of choice and allow so many manufacturers and developers to express thier creativity.
Imagine a fruit bowl with only apples. Gimme some Ice cream please...
anonymous 4 September, 2012 10:07
'O2 isn't happy with the update' or 'O2 isn't happy to upgrade as it means less people will buy expensive shiny new phones and take out new contracts'.
anonymous 4 September, 2012 16:21
Android vendors need to go vanilla android. All they do is bloat android with crappy propriety apps that almost noone wants or uses. Give people what they want. With pure Android more regular over-the-air updates will sort out all these problems. I use a galaxy nexus with JB, there are people waiting for ICS update which initially came out last year. This is unacceptable.
Ruffus Stone 5 September, 2012 17:25
[quote: "....there are people waiting for ICS update which initially came out last year. This is unacceptable" ]
There are people out there still waiting for promised updates to 2.3 Gingerbread, never mind ICS !
Plain Vanilla Android is unlikely to be attractive to the phone network vendors, for exactly the reason given in the post 2 places up (anonymous 4 September, 2012 10:07)
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