Sony has announced its plans for updating to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) by publishing a list of all devices getting the latest operating system, but not all Xperia phones have made the cut.

Sony ICS

Just days after HTC announced its upgrade plans, Sony has revealed that many of its Xperia range of smartphones will get Ice Cream Sandwich, however there is one major samrtphone ommitted from the list, the Xperia Play.

Despite having a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, the Xperia Play - which was released in March 2011 - will miss out on the Android 4.0 update, no doubt annoying users of the PlayStation-branded gaming phone.

It's been a slow release for Ice Cream Sandwich, which first began appearing on smartphones in October 2011 and currently just the Xperia arc S, neo V and ray can be updated, with more of Sony's smartphones following suit soon.

The full list of Sony smartphones getting Ice Cream Sandwich is:

  • Xperia arc
  • Xperia arc S
  • Xperia neo
  • Xperia neo V
  • Xperia mini
  • Xperia mini pro
  • Xperia pro
  • Xperia active
  • Xperia ray
  • Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman

Although the Xperia sola and Xperia S are not on the list, Sony has said elsewhere that they will both receive an update to Ice Cream Sandwich soon, following the update being mistakenly released early by Sony.

A spokesperson apologised for the confusion, saying on the company's forum: "OK, looks like I've mixed things up. I'm really sorry for this. The ICS roll out for Xperia arc S, ray and neo V started some time ago. The rest of the 2011 Xperias will get ICS during late May/early June. Which was the timing I mixed with the Xperia S timing, Xperia S will get it during latter part of Q2. Sorry."

Sony has also released a video explaining how to upgrade its phones to Android 4, below.

Sony Android HTC