Sony is now the world’s third largest smartphone maker, after Samsung and Apple. One might conclude that Sony is making a killing with its Xperia phones, but sadly this is not the case.

Sony’s market share fell from 5 percent in 2011 to 4.8 percent this year. However, HTC, RIM and Nokia tumbled even faster, allowing Sony to overtake them. Nokia’s share dropped from 13.6 percent to 3.4 percent, HTC from 10.3 percent to 4.6 percent, while RIM halved its share, slipping from 9.6 to 4.2 percent.

However, Sony has big plans for its next generation Xperias, like the 1080p Odin. Sony can make a good looking phone, and its build quality has always been solid, so it could have a future in the smartphone space. Hopefully Sony will also manage to work out its software issues and stop shipping phones with outdated operating systems.

More here.