2010 - Launches phones on Android 1.6 Doghnut and received mass criticism for installing an old OS on new phones. Later, the company updated some of the phones to 2.1 Eclair.
2011 - Launches most phones on the then latest OS version, Android Gingerbread 2.3. This attracts intense support from those in the mobile industry, software/Android industry and most importantly from customers who benefit from the latest features.
2012 - Launches many phones on 2.3 Gingerbread when 2 versions later (ICS, Jellybean) has been launched. The positive part is, except for the Xperia Play from 2011, Sony's promise of updating all 2011 phones to 4.0 ICS happened and this attracted the same positive reactions from the 2011 phones. However, form mid-2012, newer Sony phones launched with ICS (very good!) but earlier 2012 devices are stuck on 2.3 while rivals e.g. Samsung are releasing Jellybean for their devices.
I agree, the numbers shouldn't mean anything. What really matters is features and quality I think. With this in mind, I think there is a new and current problem with updates with the same 2010 mistakes and it would be wise to fix this. I know that this involves company strategy, logistics, cost analysis, release schedule of new phones etc. but I think it would be a huge loss on the great 2011 software success to fall behind again, like in 2010. My other concern is that we will get Jellybean *way* too late.
