Ice Cream Sandwich update for Xperia Play and 2011 Xperia range delayed

Sony Mobile has delayed the rollout of Android 4.0 to its 2011 Xperia range, and announced its intention not to deliver the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update over the air either by wi-fi or 3G.

Instead, those who wish to upgrade to ICS will need to use the PC Companion software or Bridge for Mac.

A blog post explains that while Ice Cream Sandwich will bring many new features to Sony Mobile's 2011 range of Xperia smartphones, updated handsets will likely be considerably less stable than their Gingerbread-running counterparts.

Therefore, Sony Mobile wants its users to "make an informed decision" when it comes to their OS version. Hence, Sony has decided not to allow automatic OTA downloads of Ice Cream Sandwich.

The ICS rollout was originally scheduled to begin in late March / early April, with different handsets updated to Android 4.0 over the course of roughly two months.

According to Sony Mobile's updated timeline, though, the first handsets to receive the update will be the Xperia arc S, neo V, and ray, with the rollout beginning in mid-April and taking 4-6 weeks.

The Xperia Play, arc, neo, mini, mini pro, pro, active, and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman will receive the update between late May and early June.

For more details on the Ice Cream Sandwich update, and why it might leave your phone crashing and sputtering, take a look at Sony Mobile's technical breakdown of the differences between Gingerbread and ICS.