It looks like Sony Ericsson’s latest smartphone sensation (or shall we say PS Phone?), the Xperia Play isn’t ready for the market, apparently.

Well, atleast if one is to belief the technical team of UK service provider, O2. In a recent blog post, the QA team for the network provider has confirmed that they have found bugs in the phone, bugs which are severe enough for them to delay the release of the device as part of their network.

Stuart Herbert, QA manager at O2, explained the cause via a blog post:

Sometimes we discover bugs and issues on a phone. This is perfectly normal – bugs can appear in every form of software. When we discover these issues we work with our phone manufacturer partners to fix them and make sure that O2 customers will have the best possible experience when they use their phone.

This is what has happened with the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY. We’ve been testing the phone non-stop for weeks and have found some bugs in the software that, if they’re not fixed, means customers won’t have a great experience. We’ve been working with Sony Ericsson to get these bugs ironed out, but haven’t been able to get them fixed in time for us to be able to launch the phone on April 1st as we originally planned.

This is obviously, not a good sign for people waiting for the device, as it appears the first batch might be buggy and the consumer might end up with a less-than-perfect product in their hands.

It remains to be seen if other network provider in and outside of UK will follow O2’s footsteps and delay the launch of the device aswell.

Do let us know your thoughts on this matter below.

O2 have delayed their launch of the upcoming Playstation Phone, having discovered bugs within the phone’s software.

O2 testing team boss Stuart Hibberd explained in a recent blog post that “our job, as I mentioned in my last blog post, is to make sure these phones are ready for our customers before they go on sale. This means we rigorously test each phone, often for weeks, and try every single feature. We get to know each phone inside and out and, by the time it goes on sale, need to be absolutely certain it’ll offer our customers a great experience.”

“Sometimes we discover bugs and issues on a phone. This is perfectly normal – bugs can appear in every form of software. When we discover these issues we work with our phone manufacturer partners to fix them and make sure that O2 customers will have the best possible experience when they use their phone.”

“This is what has happened with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. We’ve been testing the phone non-stop for weeks and have found some bugs in the software that, if they’re not fixed, means customers won’t have a great experience. We’ve been working with Sony Ericsson to get these bugs ironed out, but haven’t been able to get them fixed in time for us to be able to launch the phone on April 1st as we originally planned.”

“At O2 we’re really excited about the Xperia Play – we announced earlier on this year that we’d be selling an exclusive white version. We want to make sure that any issues with the software are resolved before it goes on sale so we’ll be working with Sony Ericsson over the next couple of weeks and we’ll be blogging regularly to update you.”

Orange, T mobile and Vodafone are also set to stock the phone.

Check out the O2 blog for the full scoop