Sony Claims Third Place in Smartphone Market

By Zak Islam
published

Struggling trio RIM, Nokia and HTC makes way for Sony's jump in popularity.

Sony has jumped three places in the global smartphone sales rankings, trailing behind technology titans Samsung and Apple. According to new research from IDC, the Japanese technology company was the third place manufacturer in Q3, 2012. Comparatively, Sony settled for sixth place during the same period in 2011.

Achieving third place saw Sony overtake the struggling trio of RIM, Nokia and HTC. Sony's market share actually fell year-on-year from 5 percent in 2011 to 4.8 percent in 2012. Nokia saw its market share of 13.6 percent in 2011 decrease to just 3.4 percent this year. HTC, meanwhile, dropped from 10.3 percent to 4.6 percent, with RIM dropping from 9.6 percent to 4.2 percent.

Elsewhere, Samsung reported a considerable increase from 22.7 percent to 31.3 percent, while Apple's share jumped from 13.8 to 14.6 percent.

As for Sony's smartphone plans for 2013, the company expects to sell 50 million Xperia handsets, while it's also preparing the rumored 1080p "Odin" device and the 5-inch "Yuga".

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Zak Islam
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer
    Sony? Just goes to show the USA isn't the whole world, because I can't think of anyone that I know with a Sony smartphone. AT&T has, like, two Sony models, both $99.99, that I didn't even look at before upgrading...
    Reply
  • freggo
    More competition for the iPhone; let the slaughter commence :-)
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    freggoMore competition for the iPhone; let the slaughter commence :-)May the hills run red with the blood of lawyers.
    Reply
  • izmanq
    i think motorola doing better than sony :D but who knows maybe toms is reporting the truth :D
    Reply
  • TunaSoda
    Heh, I actually have a Sony Xperia Play phone right now, but it's getting shelved on Thursday when my Samsung Galaxy Note II arrives via FedEx ;)
    Reply
  • I'd like for this to be true. What are some of the Sony models that are the top sellers?
    Reply
  • aragis
    I wish Sony never made the PS Vita, but instead integrated hardcore gaming with their mobile devices. Psp had uber hardware compared to the phones in that time but now a Note 2 is perhaps more powerful than a Vita and has an HD display.
    Reply
  • jrharbort
    aragisI wish Sony never made the PS Vita, but instead integrated hardcore gaming with their mobile devices. Psp had uber hardware compared to the phones in that time but now a Note 2 is perhaps more powerful than a Vita and has an HD display.The GPU in the Vita is still pretty powerful by mobile standards. It's comparable to the SGX543MP4 found in the iPad 3, while also having to drive far fewer pixels. The Vita uses this extra horsepower to enable anti-aliasing, something we don't really see in the tablet arena yet.

    The Vita is a good console, Sony has just been making bad decisions with it. Card locking and expensive proprietary storage/accessories are just a few. Everything about the Vita just screams paranoia over anti-piracy.
    Reply
  • Sony? Seriously? I wouldn't be caught dead with one. They are kinda arrogant and make a lot of stupid moves like lots of DRM and suing 10 year olds for jail-breaking their products. I'd rather buy from a less destructive less greedy company.

    Maybe it's just me but I can't stand those cooperate people at Sony.
    Reply
  • showcase0712
    9431499 said:
    The GPU in the Vita is still pretty powerful by mobile standards. It's comparable to the SGX543MP4 found in the iPad 3, while also having to drive far fewer pixels. The Vita uses this extra horsepower to enable anti-aliasing, something we don't really see in the tablet arena yet.

    The Vita is a good console, Sony has just been making bad decisions with it. Card locking and expensive proprietary storage/accessories are just a few. Everything about the Vita just screams paranoia over anti-piracy.


    ya, but u dont need AA when you got over 300ppi on a screen... you dont need to blend pixel edges when u cant even see em.
    Reply