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"Sony Ericsson's new PlayStation phone, otherwise known as the Xperia Play, is going to be in shorter supply on its April 1 launch after it emerged freight issues are impacting shipments into the country, affecting Vodafone customers that have pre-ordered their devices.\r\n\r\nSony Ericsson confirmed the delay, issuing a statement:\r\nWe can confirm that the Xperia\u2122\u00A0PLAY 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\u2122 PLAYs\u00A0arriving at some retail outlets. This said, consumers can purchase Xperia\u2122\u00A0PLAY as of April 1\u00A0at a number of stores across the UK.\r\nReaders also contacted us to tell us that they had received an email from Vodafone giving them an update on their pre-ordered Xperia Play and Arc devices. The email read:\r\nSony Ericsson has\u00A0advised us that\u00A0it\u00A0will not be able to supply the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play\u00A0and Arc devices\u00A0to meet their\u00A0original launch date of 1 April. Unfortunately, this means there will be a small delay\u00A0before pre-order customers receive their orders and the device is made available for sale in our shops.\r\n\r\nWe're working closely with Sony Ericsson to ensure\u00A0our customers' phones are\u00A0delivered as soon as possible and we will\u00A0contact people directly\u00A0with specific timescales when we know more.\r\n\r\nWe appreciate this is disappointing and are doing our very best to resolve this as quickly as possible.\r\nThe delay could impact Sony Ericsson quite heavily, the Xperia Play is a handset that fills a specific niche and will likely need early handset owners to help generate buzz so it can appeal to a wider consumer audience.\r\n\r\nWith news that O2 has delayed the release of the device on its networks due to bugs in the Xperia Play software, Sony Ericsson's launch partners will have limited units in stock on April 1.\r\n\r\nWe have contacted Orange and Three to see if they are impacted by any delays, we are waiting to hear back."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2011/03/31/sony-ericsson-xperia-play-hit-by-more-delays/>