Sony

One must wonder why Sony cannot get out of the habit of playing a fragmented and behind-the-curve Android release schedule for its devices.

Finally putting speculation to rest, a Sony representative confirmed with Crave today (and subsequently on Twitter) that Sony tablet owners in "all regions will have Android 4.0 by end of May." And on a related note, a Sony Japan statement announced a May 24 drop date for Android 4.0 landing on both Tablet S and Tablet P devices specifically in that country, perhaps a timeframe we should expect elsewhere.

To recap, see if you can keep up with this:

Currently, Sony offers Android 4.0 software for the Tablet S in the U.S. (since April), while Europe, Japan and other countries only have official access to Android 3.2.1 for both the Tablet P and the Tablet S. You read that correctly -- Sony's home country and Europe still pick away at Honeycomb while Americans enjoy Ice Cream Sandwich.

Up until now, the timetable for the arrival time of the Android 4.0 update for Sony's tablets remained a mystery in some ways. Sony gave Android 4.0 to U.S. owners of the Tablet S for a considerable amount of time before any other region.

The level of frustration emanating from European Sony tablet owners seems at an all-time high. One discussion topic at the Sony Europe forums contains many lengthy replies from disappointed Sony tablet owners, including those who resorted to hackers for the update instead. "I have a 16Gb Tab S, rooted and ICS courtesy of Condi from XDA - who is much more helpful and responsive than $ony," said forum user praed0r.

Do you think Sony's continued failure to quickly deploy Android updates burns consumers from repurchasing into the brand? You may recall the now-defunct Sony Ericsson took an extraordinary amount of time to deliver its Android updates back in the Xperia X10 era, so repeating this course of action seems extremely foolish.

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