Regular readers will know that we’ve been bringing all the developments about the Sony Xperia ion smartphone. Although it was unveiled way back at CES in January all had gone very quiet until recently when there were signs at last that the Xperia ion might be on the way. Now an ad has appeared that shows a release date of June on AT&T.

This smartphone looks to be a very decent handset and recently we told how it had received GCF certification, indicating a release was closer. Towards the end of last month we heard that the Xperia ion was to be launched in Taiwan, highly frustrating for US customers who had been originally informed that the Xperia ion was exclusive to them on AT&T. We had comments from people still patiently waiting for the phone and now if the latest news is accurate it seems the release is not much further away.

A report on Droid Matters tells how one of its writers was checking emails and whilst doing so came across a Google ad specifically talking about the “New Sony Xperia ion 4G LTE Android with 12MP Camera” adding “Coming Exclusively to AT&T in June.” While we suspected as much, as initially the phone was touted for a Q2 release, it’s certainly reassuring that it does seem to be very close to a launch now and hopefully knowing this will go a little way to placating those still waiting.

There’s no news on pricing yet but as a recap of specs and features we can tell you the Xperia ion has a 4.55-inch HD display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 12-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front shooter, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage with microSD expansion. It is also PlayStation Certified and will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, possibly the only letdown to this otherwise notable set of specs. An upgrade to Android 4.0 ICS will follow though.

If you have an interest in the Xperia ion you might also like to check out our comparison between the ion and the HTC One X, also for AT&T. We’ll keep readers up to date with further developments, such as a precise release date, as soon as we hear more.

Are you still patiently waiting (or not so patiently) for the Xperia ion to make its appearance? If so, what has made you hang on for this smartphone rather than any of the others currently on the market? Send your comments to let us know.