Sony Mobile confirmed several Xperia devices soon to receive the latest Android 4.3 Jelly Bean firmware. Sony also planned to make Android 4.3 upgrades for their other devices running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Update

According to Blogs.SonyMobile.com, Sony was preparing to push Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean software update for Xperia Z and Xperia ZL, expected to arrive to owners very soon depending country and network carrier.

Another set of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update was also scheduled to be released early August 2013 to several Xperia devices such as Xperia ZR and Xperia Tablet Z. These Xperia devices were currently running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean which features Google Now, Project Butter, resizable widgets and other major bug fixes. Android 4.2.2 will include Quick Settings, lock screen widgets and actionable notifications.

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean in the Works

Google officially announced the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean version and already pushed the update for several Nexus devices.

"Yesterday you probably saw Google announced the next version of Jelly Bean (Android 4.3) - we're already getting stuck in and can confirm we'll make 4.3 available: Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia SP and Xperia Z Ultra," quoted from blogs.sonymobile.com.

In addition to the devices mentioned above, Sony was also looking at uplifting some of other devices currently running Android 4.1 directly to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Fredik Ekstrand, Head of Software Product Management at Sony Mobile, revealed a lot of improvements on Android 4.3.

"Since we have Android 4.3 running on Xperia devices already now, our software developers can start to verify the Sony applications and other functionality directly on AOSP (Android Open Source Project). This makes it possible to start testing the features that are not dependent on QUALCOMM Technologies or Sony SW components against the new software release before the initial integration is finalised. Furthermore, we also get the chance to start the adaptation the different regions, networks and operators at the same time as we do the feature upgrade work," he stated, noted by developer.sonymobile.com.

Sony started developing their Android 4.3 software update and it included several improvements to the Vanilla Android such as:

- Lock screen

- Home screen

- Phonebook

- WALKMAN app

- Movies app

- Album app

- Messaging

- Quick Settings

- Text input

- UI components

- Localisation

- Calendar

- Email

Expected Release Date

Sony cannot confirm when the Android 4.3 update was due for release, as the company was very busy dealing with its development.

"Obviously everyone will now wonder how much faster the upgrades will come, and that we cannot exactly say right now since we are just getting started. But we can say, is that we now have improvements in place and it should have a significant effect on the lead times," Sony's Fredrik concluded.