FollowSony confirmed that its line of Xperia Z devices will get the newest Android 4.3 update. The official announcement was made by Sony on Thursday. The devices that are supposed to receive the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update include Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia SP, and Xperia Z Ultra. Apart from these smartphones, the only tablet to get the Android 4.3 update is the Xperia Tablet Z.
Sony is also considering providing Android 4.3 update to its other handsets which are currently running on Android 4.1. The Android 4.3 update was first made available by Google on is Nexus phones and tablets. When the most of the smartphones and tablets were running on Android 4.1, at that time Google had announced the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update. Like always, the update was first rolled out for Nexus devices. However, only few devices received the Android 4.2 update. We hope that the Android 4.3 update is made available for most of the devices that are still running on Android 4.1 Sony is the first among the top brands to get the Android 4.3 upgrade.
Even though Sony made arrival of Android 4.3 update official, the company is yet to announce the precise dates. Since Sony has announced that they will provide Android 4.3 update to handsets running on Android 4.1, this is a welcome relief to the users who have been endlessly waiting for the arrival of Android 4.2 update on their handsets.
Sad thing is that Sony has not been quick in offering Android releases to its customers. In December 2012, Sony had announced that they will be offering Android 4.2 updates to all the Xperia devices that were rolled out in 2012. However, the process was accomplished in the previous month. Sony has acknowledged the fact that they were slow in providing the Android updates. The company is aware of the frustrations customers have gone through and they are consistently making efforts to bring about improvements.
Another thing Sony users needs to be aware of is that the availability of the Android 4.3 update depends on the approval from carriers. However, this time around Sony hopes to provide the updates as quickly as possible. Currently, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is ruling the smartphone market and the next one to follow is HTC One. Hence, Sony does not want to stay behind and wants to offer the latest Android update on most of its devices.
Samsung has announced that they will be offering Android 4.3 update in the forthcoming months. HTC will also be offering the newest Android for its handsets but before that they wish to review the software and see it fits their plans. Even other brands will ensure that they offer the latest Android 4.3 to its customers. The specific date of Android 4.3 update is not available yet but we feel that the update will be out in November or December. This can be good for Sony as most people in US are expected to make purchases during the holiday season.
The Android 4.3 update cannot be called a ‘major’ update but it does improve the performance of the operating system. It also brings new features such as restricted profiles, Bluetooth Smart technology, better streaming multimedia support, and auto-complete feature in dialer.
At present, Xperia Z and Xperia ZL are the two devices from Sony that are in the process of receiving the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update. The next in line are the Xperia ZR and Xperia Z tablet to receive Android 4.3 update in the coming month. So, we can know that at least for these devices the Android 4.2 will not be skipped which means these devices may take some more time to receive the Android 4.3 update.
We hope that the new Android 4.3 becomes available to all the recent Xperia devices very soon. Sony has been quite slow in releasing the updates. Now is the time to release updates to stay in competition with the market leaders.
