Dear Sony,
I'm writing here as a former customer of yours. Since last week, I don't use my Arc S anymore, because I switched to phone made by your competitor. I don't plan to buy another Sony (phone or other product), ever. If you want to know why, read on. If not, just continue with your regularly scheduled activities, and good luck to your company. You will need it.
You see, in the November of the last year, I bought a flasgship phone of yours, Xperia Arc S. SE had beautifully designed their 2011 line. ICS was being announced a few days before. Vendors were slowly announcing, that yes, they will bring ICS to their phones. Sony Ericsson was among the first. Having their entire 2011 line built around single chipset looked like smart move to minimize the work needed to bring new versions. Looks like SE learned from the X10/X8 fiasco. Life looked so beautiful.
Fast forward to April. Most of the shelf-life of the phone gone, Sony finally makes ICS available. Except not for me. For some reason, you decided, that not all your customers are worthy of ICS. Your communication is vague, you cannot provide basic timetable about the rollout. Please don't bother linking to your developer blog discussing the certifications and approvals. I've read it already. And the thing is, I don't really care. The point of GSM/UMTS is, that the same handset works on every network, without operators having any say in the matter. You want to maintain good relation with the operators? Fine, but make it in such way that does not alienate the end users. Because in the end, it's the end users who brings the money, not the operator. The operator is only middle-man. If the middle-man damages your business and your brand, it is your problem. You cannot ask the end user to be patient, until things get forgotten. You have bizdev staff, use them.
Fast forward to July. Jelly Bean is being announced. This time, vendors are mum about the support. Except some Sony guy, who says that 2011 Xperias won't get Jelly Bean. My phone, announced 10 months ago, made available 9 months ago, bought 8 months ago, that I had to be patient and wait for months to get ICS (still not available for my "SI", 1255-0398), won't get the current version. Not officialy anyway. Given the non-existing Cyanogenmod support for Arc S, not even unoficially.
That was the straw that broke camel's back. I went to a shop, got Galaxy Nexus and right now I'm enjoying Jelly Bean in the form it is supposed to be. If you want to know why Samsung is eating your lunch, this is it.
You former customer
