May 17, 2011 12:46 GMT  ·  By

After numerous delays in different regions, it appears that Xperia Play smartphone will be postponed in New Zealand as well.

As if the PSN problem wasn't enough for Sony, their phone shipments are now targeted by thieves.

According to Vodafone New Zealand, the company had a major security breach and the shipment of Xperia Play units that should have been launched this month has been stolen.

The carrier made the staggering announcement via Twitter:

Regret to advise the Xperia Play launch will be delayed. Major security breach. The shipment of phones has been stolen.”

However, this might as well be a marketing stunt played by Vodafone just to make the things more interesting for those who haven't bought the iPhone 4 yet.

Currently, Apple's iPhone 4 seems to have the strongest sales on the New Zealand market, even though the customers have to pay a rather expensive monthly plan to get it cheap.

If this is indeed viral advertising, we should expect another announcement coming from Vodafone or Sony Ericsson in the next few days.

Otherwise, it is likely that the manufacturer will not be able to send another shipment of Xperia Play phones anytime soon, so those expecting to purchase the device will have to wait a bit longer.

Regardless of the situation in New Zealand, the Swedish-Japanese joint venture encountered numerous difficulties since it announced its new Xperia series Android smartphones, including limited production capacity in Japan due to the unfortunate events that took place in the last two months.

On related news, it appears that Vodafone External Communications Manager, Matthew East commented on the subject when asked by the guys over at TechDay, “Fear not, all will be revealed on Facebook tomorrow.”

The aforementioned statement strongly suggests that this could be a viral marketing. Stay tuned for more updates on the subject.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
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