Sony Ericsson chose not to comment throughout the working day yesterday, despite . Vodafone confirmed that it did not have stock, saying: "Sony Ericsson has advised us that it will not be able to supply the Xperia Play and Arc devices to meet original launch date of 1 April."

PC Advisor received a statement from Sony Ericsson at 7:34pm confirming the problems, which are described as a 'freight issue'.

The SE spokesman told us: "We can confirm that the Xperia PLAY handsets are still planned to launch in the UK for 1st April, as originally communicated. However, as of yesterday [Thursday 31 March], we have experienced a freight issue that may impact the number of Xperia PLAYs arriving at some retail outlets.

"This said, consumers can purchase Xperia PLAY as of April 1st at a number of stores across the UK."

According to the Sony Ericsson spokesman, the Xperia PLAY is currently available from Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Phones 4U, 'amongst others'. The Carphone Warehouse yesterday said it had plenty of stock, and the device is also currently displaying as 'in stock' at Tesco and Amazon.