Sony climbs into smartphone top three, behind Samsung and Apple

Sony has jumped three places in the global smartphone sales rankings compared with the same period one year ago. According to new research from IDC, the Japanese company was the third-placed manufacturer in Q3 2012, trailing only Samsung and Apple.

That compares with an altogether unimpressive sixth place finish in the corresponding period in 2011.Since then Sony has overtaken RIM, Nokia and HTC whose fortunes have slumped even further this year.

However, Sony's rise is probably more to do with the ongoing struggles of the aforementioned trio. Sony's market share actually fell, year-on-year, from 5.0 per cent in 2011, to 4.8 per cent in 2012. It's just that HTC, Nokia and RIM fell further.

Nokia slipped dramatically from a 13.6 per cent hold in 2011 to just 3.4 per cent in 2012. HTC dropped from 10.3 per cent to 4.6 per cent, while RIM dropped from 9.6 per cent to 4.2 per cent. As expected, Samsung posted a massive leap from 22.7 per cent to 31.3 per cent and is definitely 2012's big winner.

Apple's share also improved from 13.8 to 14.6 per cent of the overall market. Sony's renewed efforts; in the smartphone market comes following its divorce from Ericsson, just over one year ago. The re-branding effort has seen Sony enjoy some critical and commercial success with Android handsets like the Xperia S and Xperia T.

The company is expecting a big bump in 2013, with the rumoured 1080p "Odin" handset set to compete at the top end of the market.

Source