Sorry to read that. Both for you and for me. Solution-wise I think the only thing to do now is go down the custom ROM route and flash something off the XDA forum on to it now. Not that I'm an expert but I'd 'sure-as-shoot' try and become one if Sony did that to me and knackered my very expensive smartphone after only about a year (I'm not gonna let them though).
Solution-wise for people like me who have been avidly awaiting the SP 4.3 update is not to do it, it seems.
This is actually like history repeating itself, where Sony is concerned. It is a matter of record that similar results were to be gained from updating the Xperia Arcs and Arc S's from 2.3 Gingerbread to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
It can't help but make me feel slightly cynical and paranoid. Look at the facts. Sony is a hugely rich multi-national corporation. They can no-doubt afford the best coders and software developers in the world. Surely they could release updates to revise and improve the performance of your hardware (the purchase that you've made supporting them; let's not forget) if they really wanted to. **bleep**, it should be **bleep** EASY for a company like Sony. Asus release excellent updates for my mum's 'Fonepad 7' every few weeks. They have an excellent update reputation. But no... instead, what do we get: something very different. Updates that practically obsolete your hard-earned handset after about a year.
The Arcs updates did exactly the same according to the consumer testimony I read. And the Arc S actually had the fastest single core processor of it's time at 1.4Ghz. **bleep** good hardware! Similarly, the SP actually is actually the fastest dual core processor handset available too, I think, at 1.7Ghz. They're both extremely fast and well performing examples of smartphone hardware. Not 'were'; 'ARE'!
So lets also consider how these big companies aim to prosper and grow: by making profits from selling you new phones. Take a minute if you need to... You've probably guessed the rest of my train of thought fairly quickly, eh? It can't pay these people to have you happy with your hardware after a year. Maybe you're supposed to think that it's rubbish? It's purely a rhetorical question. £250 - £300 worth of rubbish all-of-a-sudden? I don't know, I just read consumer testimony and consider a few facts.
And who knows, they might still be trying to rebuild their fortune after the 2011 tsunami?
All I know is I never updated my Arc S, I won't be updating my SP because of what people like you have said, there are some really amazing smartphones coming out of Taiwan and South Korea and the Sony corporation should really pull their pants up in relation to their record of recent smartphone update disasters.
