The Xperia Active’s model number was ST17i/ST17a, which is another hint at Lotus’ being its successor. Moreover, this smartphone should be released in two variants — one will support HSPA network with the 900 and 2100 bands, while the other will support 850/1900 bands for 3G/4G. The final letters “i” and “a” in the model numbers stand for international and American, respectively. The latter is compatible with AT&T’s network, thus, the Sony Xperia Lotus can be launched on contract. But it’s too early to talk about such things as the phone is yet not confirmed officially.

As to the features, the Lotus is packed a 480×854 resolution display, an ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 1 GHz dual-core processor and runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Most likely, it’s the most disappointing feature as ICS has been available for more than half a year. However, Blog of Mobile thinks Android 4.0 will be on the phone at its launch.

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Markus, Sony Xperia Support team member, commented in one of Sony Mobile forums. According to that comment, the Sony Xperia S will get ICS update in late May/early June. On the other hand, this news dispels the rumor, according to which, the phone should be upgraded to ICS only in June or July.

Sony has yet made no comment on this occasion, and the launch date of the update remains unknown. But if such rumors have started to leak, we can assume the update is almost ready.

Sony has announced it had a net loss of $3.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. Totally the annual loss of Sony made up $5.7 billion, which is the worst in the company’s 66-year history. As to sales numbers, it plunged nearly 10% to $81 billion. These numbers refer not only to the smartphones but also to every product the company makes — flat-panel TVs, video and digital cameras, game consoles and personal computers.

However, Sony’s newly appointed president, Kazuo Hirai said the Japanese manufacturer will gain the first profits in March 2013 thanks to its growing smartphone and tablet business. Looking at the smartphone line of Sony (including both announced and unannounced models), it’s quite reasonable the company will overcome last year’s financial difficulties.

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On the whole, the Sony Xperia Ion sports perfect features. Among them we have a 4.55-inch LED-backlit LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 720×1280 pixels. Its pixel density (323ppi) is close to the iPhone’s Retina Display providing 330ppi. The multitouch works with up to 4 fingers. It doesn’t come with Gorilla Glass because the manufacturer has its own Scratch-resistant glass technology. And at the end, the screen is powered by Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine. No doubt the selling point of the phone will be the screen but it doesn’t mean it lacks some really good features. The Xperia Ion is packed with a dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, a 12MP camera on the back capable of recording videos at 1080p, a 1.3MP frontal camera on front, 16GB of native storage and 1GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the phone is said to come with Gingerbread aboard but once launched it will be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich.

As you see, the Xperia Ion is a quite attractive device, and it’s not clear to me why the phone is yet not launched in the US. Anyway, if we believe the Google ad, then we’ll soon have the phone there.

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According to NenaMark Benchmark, the Sony ST21i Tapioca will be packed with an 800MHz processor, a 3.2-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 320×480 pixels, 512MB of RAM, a 3 MP camera, and amazingly, the phone will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The test showed most of the earlier rumors are true. Moreover, the Tapioca is said to come with an Adreno 200 GPU, which is another plus to its decent specs list.

We expect the phone to be renamed to something like Xperia + a letter (like Xperia S, Xperia U and Xperia P) or Xperia + a different brand (such as Xperia Sola or Xperia Arc). Regardless of the name it will come with, the Tapioca should be priced aggressively to make some competition in the rough Android market.

The spotted photos refer to the Sony Xperia LT29i and the Xperia ST21i codenamed as Hayabusa and Tapioca, respectively. The first handset appeared somewhere in China. It looks similar to the Xperia Ion. It is packed with a 4.55-inch HD display, a dual-core Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 Pro processor with Adreno 320 GPU, a 13MP camera on the back with HDR video, a 2200mAh battery, runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and has 7mm thickness.

The second leaked phone is a low-end device. The Tapioca comes with a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen, a 3MP rear camera, an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and also runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

No more details are available, but we’re sure the phones will be announced in the near future.

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This update changes the software version from Android 3.2 Honeycomb to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It brings the following enhancements:

• Enhanced lock screen — Direct access to Notifications, Unlock direct to camera.
• New panoramic camera mode.
• Enhanced Gallery media viewer — Direct SD card access + photo editing tools.
• Exclusive “Small Apps’ for multi-tasking — Calculator, Browser, Remote Control, Move to screen edge for reduced clutter.
• New Home Screen actions — Drag icons together to create folders, Add names to folders.
• Enhanced web browser — Switch from mobile to desktop web sites, Save pages for offline viewing.
• Access files directly from SD card.
• Native screenshot capture — Press “power” and “Volume.”

It’s an OTA update, so you must get a notification once you turn on the device. If you haven’t been notified yet, don’t get upset as it’s being pushed out region by region, and you’ll soon get the update.

The device is packed with a list of respectable features, which make it stand out. Among them the most noteworthy ones are the 4.3-inch LED-backlit LCD touchscreen with a 720p resolution, dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM, 12MP rear camera taking snaps at 4000×3000 pixels and videos at 1080p, 1.3MP camera on the back for web chat, 32GB of internal memory, which must be enough because there is no microSD extension, and WiFi Hotspot. It also runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which will soon be updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Sony Xperia S will be offered for $99.99 on contract but if you don’t want to sign a contract with the carrier, it will cost you $499.99.

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The next group of smartphones to get Android 4.0 ICS will be the Xperia arc, the Xperia PLAY, the Xperia neo, the Xperia mini, the Xperia mini pro, the Xperia pro, the Xperia active and the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman. They will receive it in late May/early June.

The update is delivered region by region, so if you haven’t got a notification on the availability of the update, do not get upset. Be patient; you will soon get it. On the whole, the process will last four to six weeks, and once users get a notification, they must use their PC or Mac and Sony’s software to complete the installation.

The almighty engineers, which are by the way paid by the government, have started to test the device at FCC. They will make sure it’s harmless for users and will not become a cause for a catastrophe.

I have always been eager to see how exactly they test the phones. Do they make dozens of experiments or simply use the phone to call each other, see how the sound, colors and camera work? Well, this is a mystery I’ll never experience, so the only thing left is to wait for the diagnosis of Sony’s little one.

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