Remember when Sony said that “all” of its 2011 Android phones would get an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich? It looks like that was a promise with caveats, as it’s admitted that the Xperia PLAY will be stuck on Gingerbread.
A definite downer if you’re already a PLAY owner; Sony’s official blog notes that
In regards to Xperia PLAY, after extensive in house testing with our developer teams and working with our partners, we have concluded that a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smartphone on Ice Cream Sandwich – therefore, we will not make the Android 4.0 upgrade available for Xperia PLAY.
This decision was also verified when we received similar feedback from the developer community; both experienced developers and advanced users, along with game content providers following our ICS beta ROM for unlocked Xperia PLAY smartphones.
It raises a number of interesting questions regarding any future PLAY hardware; if Sony does release an ICS model with more Playstation compatibility, will that leave the existing Xperia PLAY with its limited Gingerbread-compatible app library only? [Sony Blog via Ausdroid]