XPERIA Play delay confirmed for even more UK retailers

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play was supposed to launch tomorrow in the UK, but SE has just confirmed that the phone will be delayed for some retailers in the UK. While it would still meet its planned 1 April launch date, it won't make it to all interested retailers in the UK as it was supposed to.

Here's the Sony Ericsson statement:

We can confirm that the Xperia™ PLAY handsets are still planned to launch in the UK for 1st April, as originally communicated. However, as of today, we have experienced a freight issue that may impact the number of Xperia™ PLAYs arriving at some retail outlets. This said, consumers can purchase Xperia™ PLAY as of April 1st at a number of stores across the UK.

O2 UK was first to inform its users about the delay a while back, blaming software issues.

Now today Vodafone UK announced too that their pre-ordered devices won't be arriving tomorrow and the device won't be making it to Vodafone stores either.

The delay should be days, instead of weeks and has supposedly been due to "freight issues".

Orange is the only one, out of the major telecoms in the UK, which will have the XPERIA Play on time tomorrow, while T-Mobile should have it by mid-April. It's strange they have different launch dates as they are simply different brands of a single company, united as Everything, Everywhere.

There's just no avoiding these dreadful problems with the XPERIA Play, when it concerns the UK. It's probably a big disappointment for the passionate fans.

Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play isn't having the best of starts in the world, having been delayed by UK carrier O2 due to "software issues," and it's now missing its targeted launch date of April 1st with two more of the local operators, Vodafone and Three. Both have today announced that, due to shipping issues, they won't be able to meet tomorrow's launch date -- leaving only Orange on track to release it on time. T-Mobile, Orange's partner in Everything Everywhere, says it'll have the Xperia Play in "mid-April." Still, the wait isn't that much longer as Three hopes to sell you a Play "early next week" and Vodafone, a bit more cautiously, is shooting for availability "as soon as possible."