O2 delays Xperia Play launch

UK mobile phones provider O2 has announced that it will not be stocking Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play from April 1st as planned.

In a blog post, O2’s head of testing Stuart Hibberd blamed the decision on software bugs and SE’s inability to resolve lingering concerns in time for the official UK launch.

"We rigorously test each phone, often for weeks, and try every single feature," he wrote. "We get to know each phone inside and out and, by the time it goes on sale, need to be absolutely certain it’ll offer our customers a great experience.

"Sometimes we discover bugs and issues on a phone. This is perfectly normal – bugs can appear in every form of software. When we discover these issues we work with our phone manufacturer partners to fix them and make sure that O2 customers will have the best possible experience when they use their phone.

"This is what has happened with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. We’ve been testing the phone non-stop for weeks and have found some bugs in the software that, if they’re not fixed, means customers won’t have a great experience.

"We’ve been working with Sony Ericsson to get these bugs ironed out, but haven’t been able to get them fixed in time for us to be able to launch the phone on April 1st as we originally planned."

O2 remains the exclusive stockist for the white version of the device. A revised launch date should be announced in due course.

There’s no indication yet that either Vodafone or Orange/T-Mobile are planning a similar move.