Sony kills software support for Xperia S, P, U, and others

As many of you know, Android handsets only have a finite amount of time until software updates are eventually dropped. To be fair to the manufacturers, it’s tough to offer long term software support due to the sheer number of new devices released each year, but the news always comes as a disappointment.

Today Sony Mobile has compiled a rather long list of devices that will no longer be receiving official software updates. The smartphones in question range in age from about a year and a half to two years old, which is pretty much the typical lifespan of most Android handsets, although two years is still arguably a little short.

The list of devices which will “not receive any further software upgrade support” includes the following models: Xperia arc S, Xperia S, Xperia SL, Xperia ion, Xperia acro S, Xperia go, Xperia P, Xperia J, Xperia miro, Xperia sola, Xperia tipo and Xperia U.

No doubt this is disappointing news for some of you out there, but on the plus side it’s nice to know that Sony is being upfront about future device support. There are plenty of cases where consumers have been patiently waiting for updates which never materialised.

How do you feel about Android software support, should manufacturers be expected to continually push out updates for old handsets, or is short term support a small price to pay for more regular hardware refreshes?