Many sites have begun popping up in the wake of Sony axing ICS for the Xperia PLAY. And they all have one message in common: Sony needs to make things right.
The Xperia PLAY situation is not the first time a manufacturer has revoked a promised major Android upgrade. Samsung is the most notorious of Android manufacturers for failing to make good on upgrades. The Samsung Behold II was stuck at Android 1.6 after being promised Android 2.0. The original Galaxy S line was briefly promised Android 4.0, after quickly retracting such commitments. Sony Ericsson also promised to upgrade its original Android Xperia phones, before leaving them in the dust. However, Sony now owns all of Sony Ericsson, and this is the first case of Sony failing to upgrade a device… after promising to do so.
The Xperia PLAY was promised an Android 4.0 upgrade on Sony Ericsson’s original ICS upgrade list. However, following the Sony takeover, Sony announced that it would remain at Android 2.3 forever, after noting decreased game performance in a few use cases when running Android 4.0.
The outcry comes as many signed two-year agreements, after Sony committed to ICS for the Xperia PLAY. Many customers waited for such a commitment before locking into a wireless contract (for two years) for the device.
There are actions Sony could take. For example, customers that can show they purchased an Xperia PLAY between the dates which Sony committed to ICS for the device, could be offered a trade-in for an ICS compatible device. The only carrier that this would be difficult on would be Verizon Wireless, for which Sony has no other ICS-ready smartphones currently.
Sony could also release an unsupported ICS upgrade. Again, Verizon Wireless typically objects to such actions, but an upgrade could be offered in over-the-wire form from Sony Ericsson’s Update Service, with a disclaimer that gaming performance may be impacted.
Still, neither solution appears to be likely to happen any time soon. Instead, users have reported to PhoneNews.com that they are seeking class action trial lawyers, to evaluate their case for a class action lawsuit against Sony. A case for detrimental reliance, at face value, does appear to have merit. Many people lined up for two-year contracts, locking themselves into an Xperia PLAY, on the reliance that Sony committed to ICS for the smartphone.
The retraction of such a commitment means consumers relied on Sony to their detriment, and may have standing to claim actual damages for not receiving the upgrade, and thus being stuck with a phone on Gingerbread / Android 2.3 through 2014, when they could upgrade or terminate their contracts.
Sony has not responded to any of the growing consumer outrage microsites dedicated to this situation.
If the Xperia PLAY does reach class action status in the United States, it would break a long trend of trial lawyers generally ignoring the subject of revoked updates. No class action lawsuits resulted from the infamous HTCClassAction.org debacle (where HTC didn’t offer drivers for advertised graphics acceleration present in early Windows Mobile devices). Many in the mobile media misreported that situation at the time, creating the impression that HTC was actually, successfully sued.
Similarly, no class action lawsuits have resulted from the Samsung Behold II, HTC Jetstream, or first-gen Sony Ericsson upgrade failures. Still, a class action lawsuit being successfully prosecuted against Sony would send a clear message to manufacturers; make good on your commitments, or wait until you actually can deliver on your promises to consumers.
This is fuckin stupid. WHO CARES if the phone works as it should? I’d rather my games and emulators work than be forced to have an upgrade that will not work well with the phone hardware and games. WTF are people bitching about this for? Who cares? You can still run all the same apps and games and emulators, wtf do people care? Sony said they would give you ICS and now they wont? Boofuckinhoo, people promise things ALL THE TIME and don’t deliver. I give Sony thumbs up for doing the RIGHT then and not forcing an upgrade that won’t work. If you are THIS picky you need to get a damn life. I’d rather my phone work with an older vesrion of Android then have a the latest version and it be all slow and not work with the apps. WTF is wrong with people?
Two, instead of saying we will release ICS for Xperia Play, they SHOULD have focused on a sequel to the device that was a huge upgrade rather than promising ICS and people would be focused on THAT rather than crying about ICS for the original phone. They should have released a follow up device that combines the ideas of Galaxy Note + GS3 + Xperia Play in one device, but no, they failed to do that. They also need to update the phone to ALLOW people to remove the bloat ware / crapware that came with it.
Wow, Jason. You sound like someone that didn’t sign away two years of their life to a bastardized device.
While it may seem like ICS and Gingerbread go hand-in-hand right now, there is a clear sign that Gingerbread support will wane quickly in the months ahead. Google has already said Chrome will never make it to Gingerbread, and that’s just the start of things to come. ICS has literally years of improvements (building on Honeycomb), and Sony promised those benefits to Xperia PLAY.
Great crass language by the way, really supports your position!
For those Xperia Play users our there, make sure Sony knows you won’t forget this and won’t just be walked over.
http://www.facebook.com/sonymakeforget
Join the boycott. #SONYmakeforget
I think everyone who’s commented so far has great points. A broken promise is a terrible thing. But beyond that, Sony had ample time to evaluate the hardware limitations of the PLAY before and after its release. Even at its release date, it was substantially behind the competition in terms of RAM, Internal memory, and CPU Core(s). It’s a gaming device and as such, should have no doubt had two cores. I think that Sony should look ahead to a true successor to the PLAY and that will be able to handle upgrades for years to come. They SHOULD compensate PLAY owners by giving them a free trade-in for the new model or, at the very least, a reasonable amount of trade-in value for owners’ functioning PLAY devices towards their purchase of the new device. Even if we do get ICS, the PLAY is a weak device. No matter how many hacks or modifications developers can come up with, there needs to be a true PlayStation Phone with the power of the Vita and all the capabilities of a Next-Generation Android device.
It’s unlikely we’ll see an Xperia PLAY 2. The device competed too much with PlayStation Vita.
Xperia PLAY only existed because Sony Ericsson was independent of Sony, and demanded that Sony offer up a gaming platform that they could tie into.
The only two non-Xperia devices that are PS Suite Certified, are the Tablet S and Tablet P… from Sony. No other manufacturer/company has embraced it, including Google’s own Nexus devices. Google partnered with Sony to create PS Suite on Android, and they even shunned it from Galaxy Nexus.
With PS Suite dead in the water, and PS Vita now on sale, Xperia PLAY 2 seems highly unlikely. It’s more likely PS Vita would be upgraded to run Android apps, and voice calling added to it. And that’s only likely if PS Vita fails in its current form…
Customers everywhere should be more than a herd of dumb fanboys suporting a company they’re paying for.
Critical thinking is essential to survive among the masses of mindless conformists who apparently will gladly accept/take anything from anyone.
The only way to get back at these lying, deceving companies which provide no decent after sales support, which abuse our rights and despise customers the minute they get their money is to stop buying their products.
Xperia Play owners have every right to feel abused, deceived and should get the right compensation.
As Sony only cares about making MORE money, the only possible action is to stop buying their products.
If their sales and their profits actually diminsh, they will immediately realise they have done something wrong.
Sony’s not a dumb company, but they’re just testing whether their customers are.
Fact:
Sony have failed to deliver what had been repeatedly advertised.
ICS upgrade was seen by Sony as a strong selling point.
That is why they always announced the peria lineup would get ICS.
That was a clever marketing campaign: advertising today’s phones as fully upgradable and compatible with the next OS.
Did that work?
Apparently, it did.
Was that true?
Obviously, not!
What did Sony do when the time fot upgrading arrive?
They simply went back on the given word with a lame excuse and no compensation/alternative plan whatsoever.
Are customers supposed to “forgive and forget” the repeated lying and deceival?
Let’s hope they’re not just conformist sheep.
No use sony’s fanboys and servants keep intoxicating forums and discussion boards everywhere.
The truth is plain to see.
This is not really a “Sony” problem, it’s a Sony Mobile Communications problem. As far as their gaming devices are concerned, they haven’t had any problems like this really. Even if you point out the PSP series, they constantly updated and the consumer could trade-in for upgrades. It’s not totally fair to boycott all Sony products. The PlayStation family has an excellent history.
Concerning the XPLAY2, I think you make a good point, but there needs to be some substantial bridge between their cellular products and gaming products because smartphones are already beginning to compete with gaming systems, both portable and console. The hardware on phones and tablets is getting to a point where you might as well call them legitimate gaming devices, and services like OnLive offer top-tier games and controllers. A Vita update with those features could work but it’d be kind of a hassle having to use headphones for private calls. It could still work though. I just hope they’d release some sort of memory/SIM cards for the Wi-Fi only models if they do offer service.
After talking to Sony, it was said that the Xperia ION will be the next gaming device. One with ICS and with 16 Gig of space for all the fun games you want.
It was mentioned that internally to Sony, a pure ICS port was made and it worked wonderfully, but it was trying to support Sony’s way of gaming that caused the problems.
Personally, at this point, I’ll live without the game pad if I can get ICS on my Play.
So they’re just gonna say forget all you PLAY owners we’re moving on and yaw get no compensation? Wow lol. The Ion is a joke if it doesn’t support sd cards. 16gbs is nothing for gameloft games.
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.
@Luis, Wow, that’s false advertisement. That’s so unacceptable….I don’t even know what to say, but that is Class A ridiculous…
They need to stop that lie about “gaming incompatibility.” The good people at xdadevelopers (some of the same people they gave the beta ics to) have made stable fixes to the game pad and such, making ics 4.0.3 about 99% compatible with the PLAY. It’s a damn shame that 6, hard working, dedicated people can come up with a fix for this phone sbd the whole gigantic Sony Mobile corporation can’t. >:O
Google “icx rom xperia play” and click/tap the first thing that comes up to see what I mean and I will email Sony Mobile as well with this information.
So…i know you read this Sony Mobile!…Open Source means OPEN!….if your devs are too lazy…let the XDA Community do the works!….so spread the word people…BOYCOT SONY MOBILE PHONE FROM NOW!…if they not relesase the ICS Source….SHAME ON YOU SONY!
In this case, its not Sony’s fault if games aren’t working properly due to the upgrade.
James, that isn’t the point. Sony should have done sufficient testing to ensure that all apps would perform properly _before_ committing to ICS for the device.
Not to mention that many in the developer community dispute Sony’s claims regarding game performance, and have offered up workarounds.
People, based on Sony’s commitment (which came from their testing), went out and bought Xperia PLAYs, locking themselves into two year contracts. That’s detrimental reliance, and Sony is liable.
And I personally, hope someone holds them to account for that liability. Where’s a trial lawyer when you need one?
Not too worried about it. The X Play seems to be the red headed step child of smartphones. But I assure you all, the people who makes phones better is us users and I bet my life some x play fan who happens to be a developer will make an ICS Rom for the Play.
@gill: They’ve already been working on what you’re talking for some time now, check my post above or go to:
http://icxperia.com
If no amends are made to the play users by Sony in a month or so and the hard working developers at icxperia come up with a stable, final version of their ice cream rom, I will most likely unlock my bootloade/root to get my phone up to date. I feel one shouldn’t have to go through that trouble to get the update, they should be able to get the update ota from Sony, in good faith, but sometimes you can’t help but be screwed over by a corporation (it’s in their nature) and be forced into the “if you want things done right, do it yourself” situation. -_-
Really Jason? you dont understand? do you have a Xperia Play?
I am stuck on ATT, so my Play doesnt even have 720p video recording, which people on Verzion get. so f ATT and you.
No update also means chunky menu navigation and apps that dont fully work with older Android versions, which soon will be a major faction when most phones will be 4.0 or higher and i am stuck with a 3.2 version that works fine, but not as well as it can.
ATTs is so locked down the bootloader doesnt work to put on a custom firmware
Sony’s rationale for canning the ICS for the Xperia PLAY was performance issues with games. If this is indeed to be believed, then one has to wonder why Sony hasn’t released the updated Adreno 205 driver. The driver update was released by Qualcomm on the 30th of December at the end of LAST YEAR. The update is believed to give a performance increase of up-to 1.5x or even 2x in some cases depending on phone and app. This is just one in a number of very simple measures that Sony could but haven’t taken to bring us a stable ICS to the Xperia PLAY. Another is the clock speed/frequency. It is currently clocked to a measly 1Ghz while it can be safely clocked to as high a frequency as 1.9Ghz, so why not clock it to a still very stable 1.4Ghz, would this not increase performance to a sufficient enough level? Alas, this brings me back to my earlier criticisms of Sony’s dev team and their utter incompetence, or at best, lack of giving a damn for supporting older devices. I was foolish to expect better from Sony, a lesson well learnt indeed.
Sony’s rationale for canning the ICS for the Xperia PLAY was performance issues with games. If this is indeed to be believed, then one has to wonder why Sony hasn’t released the updated Adreno 205 driver. The driver update was released by Qualcomm on the 30th of December at the end of LAST YEAR. The update is believed to give a performance increase of up-to 1.5x or even 2x in some cases depending on phone and app. This is just one in a number of very simple measures that Sony could but haven’t taken to bring us a stable ICS to the Xperia PLAY. Another is the clock speed/frequency. It is currently clocked to a measly 1Ghz while it can be safely clocked to as high a frequency as 1.9Ghz, so why not clock it to a still very stable 1.4Ghz, would this not increase performance to a sufficient enough level? Alas, this brings me back to my earlier criticisms of Sony’s dev team and their utter incompetence, or at best, lack of giving a damn for supporting older devices. I was foolish to expect better from Sony, a lesson well learnt indeed
Sony’s rationale for canning the ICS for the Xperia PLAY was performance issues with games. If this is indeed to be believed, then one has to wonder why Sony hasn’t released the updated Adreno 205 driver. The driver update was released by Qualcomm on the 30th of December at the end of LAST YEAR. The update is believed to give a performance increase of up-to 1.5x or even 2x in some cases depending on phone and app. This is just one in a number of very simple measures that Sony could but haven’t taken to bring us a stable ICS to the Xperia PLAY. Another is the clock speed/frequency. It is currently clocked to a measly 1Ghz while it can be safely clocked to as high a frequency as 1.9Ghz, so why not clock it to a still very stable 1.4Ghz, would this not increase performance to a sufficient enough level? Alas, this brings me back to my earlier criticisms of Sony’s dev team and their utter incompetence, or at best, lack of giving a damn for supporting older devices. I was foolish to expect better from Sony, a lesson well learnt indeed.