News about Lollipop updates for owners of Sony Xperia phones that weren’t in the companies much vaunted Z series was pretty bleak yesterday. Sony began telling customers on social media that only the Xperia Z line would receive an update to Lollipop, leaving owners of a number of handsets less than a year old hanging. This seems to have changed overnight with the social media team changing their response to a ‘no comment’ and referring customers eager for the update to keep an eye on their blog.
https://twitter.com/sonyxperia/status/574336982870007809
https://twitter.com/sonyxperia/status/574334970266783744
https://twitter.com/sonyxperia/status/574331951487840256
The news that Sony was possibly not going to update non-Xperia Z phones brought a lot of comments and attention yesterday. It was definitely what we would call a passionate response from even non-Sony handset owners vowing to not purchase a Sony handset based on this. Sony has obviously heard the outcry and there may be a fresh announcement regarding Lollipop updates quite soon, we’ll keep you posted.
I think the message is clear.
If you are a phone fan, and you need updates, you have to buy a Z phone on Sony.
But similar rules apply for other makers. Buy the flagship. If you buy the cheap phone, that’s fine, but don’t expect upgrades.
This is why Google needs to step in, and require all the manufacturers to commit, in writing in contract, to have fully working vanilla ROMs available for ALL new devices when those devices go on sale, and for the manufacturers to update the OS on ALL the new devices to 2 full OS cycles. ALL devices, not just the Major Bland Name Model flogships. ‘flogships’, because the Major Bland Names have their Big Name Models which they flog everywhere like there’s no tomorrow. Commit in writing in contract, so the manufacturers cannot weasel out of their Responsibilities To End Users.… Read more »
That will only push manufacturers to use an OS away from android causing fragmentation.
That, or push up the price of the phones, in order to factor in the costs associated with updates.
I thought Sony pretty much fired everyone in their Mobile department. I doubt they have any staff to work on it even if they wanted to roll it out to mid-range devices.
Is Sammy bringing Lollipop update to all of its mid range devices? WIll HTC desire range 100% receive Lollipop? Probably NOT. I am Z3 customer and My experience with Android is update may bring few new feature but if unless current version is Full of bugs shouldn’t be too much worried about an update. Cant fault anything with Kitikat 4.4.4 on my Z3
I don’t think many of the mid-range phones from the other manufacturers have been receiving that many updates anyway, so Sony is being no different compared to the likes of LG or Samsung. I think the exception would be Motorola.
You’re absolutely right. Though Sony have a chance here, this obviously highlights how passionate their fans are, why not capitalise on it? We need a strong Sony!!
Don’t think I’ll be buying a Sony. Just reading it grinds my gears… After sales suicide on Sony’s behalf!
Either that or they are now saying nothing to avoid upsetting customers but the policy is the same. It’s fairly average if they don’t. It’s not like Sony have a big, cumbersome skin to update to lollipop.