The Sony Xperia T is due to launch in the UK at the end of this month, at least on the carriers. A number of UK operators including O2, Three and Vodafone have formally announced the phone and disclosed a September release date. O2 will even get a special James Bond Skyfall edition of ‘The Bond Phone‘ that will come with exclusive packaging, ringtones and screensavers.
However, those of you looking to purchase the Xperia T phone sim-free may be in for a long wait. Retailer Expansys says that the contract-free version of the handset may not make an appearance until as late as January 2013. TechRadar reports that “talks with Sony revealed the handset will be only available on contract first, direct from networks and from a couple of high street retailers.”
This fits in with what we have seen so far. Carphone Warehouse has the phone up for pre-order, but only on O2 and Orange i.e. no sim-free option. It’s a similar story at Phones4U. The phone is listed on a number of mobile phone retailers such as Clove but even they say that “Official Price and Availability To Be Confirmed”. These details should have been sewn up weeks ago.
It is increasingly looking like that you won’t be able to purchase a sim-free Xperia T at the end of the month, at least in the UK. The wait may not end up being as late as January 2013, but there will be a wait nonetheless.
We’re not sure why Sony Mobile would want to alienate potential sim-free customers, if this news does turn out to be true. It may be due to component shortages, perhaps of the S4 Snapdragon chipset, or there might be some kind of agreement struck up with the carriers. Either way we don’t know for sure, but we’ll keep you posted as we lead up to launch date.
Thanks Andrew P!
