14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile phone carrier O2 UK has just announced that it is gearing up for the release of Sony Ericsson's Xperia PLAY, following a delay caused by various software issues with the handset.
The Xperia PLAY smartphone was unveiled in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system on board.
The handset sports a large touchscreen display, complemented by a sliding game pad, with the usual PlayStation buttons on it. Xperia PLAY is the first smartphone in the world to be PlayStation certified.
In late March, the wireless carrier announced that it would not release the PlayStation phone on its airwaves on April 1st, as initially expected, due to a series of problems with the software on the device.
On Wednesday, Stuart Hibberd, head of O2’s testing team, has announced that the wireless carrier and Sony Ericsson have been hard at work with the delivery of a new software for the device, and that things are looking good for enthusiasts.
“At the end of March I let you know that, after a period of intense testing, we’d found bugs with the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY that meant we couldn’t launch the phone on April 1st as we originally planned,” Stuart Hibberd notes on the company's blog.
“Since then we’ve received new software from Sony Ericsson which we’ve been testing here and, I’m happy to report, it has fixed a lot of the bugs that would have stopped our customers having a great experience when they use the PLAY.”
Basically, this means that the Xperia PLAY smartphone is ready to be put on shelves, though specific info on when that would happen was not unveiled for the time being.
“I’ll update you again shortly and we’ll also be publishing more details on the Xperia PLAY very soon, including prices and specific release dates. You can also register for more information on our Xperia PLAY minisite,” he concluded.