Sony backtracks on its Jelly Bean update stance, no decision has been made

Sony faced a PR nightmare when one of its UK-based spokespersons spilled the beans on the company’s Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update plan for the 2011 Xperia smartphones, or better said, lack thereof. To calm the tension, the HQ office has now issued a corrective statement.

As posted on Sony’s blog, they said that earlier confirmation about the snubbing of last year’s  Xperia phones from receiving Jelly Bean update had been given out “in error”. What’s factual is that the company is still “actively investigating Android OS upgrades for all devices”, while focusing on rolling out Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for its Xperia devices.

While it’s a nice gesture from Sony to clear the air, we think they’re just buying time and don’t want to be put in the hot seat too early – given that their ICS update hasn’t even been completely rolled out yet. The next scheduled ICS upgrade is supposedly heading to Xperia P in the coming weeks – to be followed by an update for the Xperia U. If they do decide not to provide Jelly Bean updates for the older models, it’s something that they’d want to do properly, and not brashly announce it on a Facebook post.

For what it’s worth, Sony is one of the better manufacturers when it comes to providing software update for their customers. So we’ll see if they can bring the goods one more time for loyal Xperia owners.

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