Sony Ericsson will have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates for its 2011 Xperia smartphones out by March 2012.

So says the marketing chief in the phone maker's Italy division, Maurizio De Palma, in the company's Facebook page, who claimed that, unlike SE's rivals, it will offer updates for all of its 2011 smartphones.

"We will be updating throughout the range of 2011 while all our competitors will update only a few - such as Samsung will not update nor W, nor the Ace, or the mini etc. etc.)," he wrote.

Sony Ericsson staffers have said in the past that the full 2011 Xperia range will get ICS, but this is the first time anyone at the company has come out and given a date. ®