Sony Mobile Communications and Lenovo have both strengthened their positions in the global smartphone market, which will benefit their handset ODM partners in Taiwan, Foxconn International Holdings (FIH), Compal Communications and Arima Communications, according to industry sources.

Lenovo has managed to ramp up its share in China's smartphone market from a mere 1.7% in 2011 to 14.8% recently, capitalizing on the rising demand for entry-level to mid-range models in the local market, the sources noted.

Lenovo, which has been cooperating with Compal Communications, FIH, Wistron NeWeb and Qisda for handset production, is now moving aggressively into the smartphone segment in Russia, India, Indonesia and other emerging markets, the sources revealed.

Sony Mobile shipped 8.8 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2012, taking the third position in the global smartphone vendor rankings for the quarter.

Although Sony Mobile is still operating in the red, the vendor is expected to swing back to profitability when its quarterly smartphone shipments surpass 10 million units, the sources estimated.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20121127PD212.html

Great news :)

It really is, Sony has 8.8 this last Quarter when they started 2012 back in feb, they were at 6.4 Million per sales Quarter, once they hit over 10 million they will be into profit , but the thing is Sony is aiming for 50+ million by the end of 2013 leading into summer 2014, and they are currently expected to ship over 35 million for 2013!  if they do obtain those projections, they will have surpassed their 50 million mark. currently there is 20 million on order for the 4th quarter 2012 leading into 1st Quarter 2013 out of China  

Yeah. Hope they do well. Fingers crossed they reach the 10M to be profitable.

The report expects the 10 million+ mark per sales Quarter to be this 4th Quarter they have had a steady increase in shipment numbers of unit's for 4 straight Quarter's, since they took over ownership over Sony Ericsson, it was 4.6 3rd Quarter 2011, 6.4 Quarter 1 of 2012, 7.4 million Quarter 2, and now 8.8 million Quarter 3. there is currently 20 million total for both on order from China! for 4th Quarter and 1st Quarter 2013!

Thats great.  Would be really awesome if they could manage to turn around the mobile business which should help. 

Things are finally looking better for sony :)

Their displays are amazing. Looks like printed on paper.

Getting an Xperia P for christmas. The Sony phones are reasonably priced too.

Sony and HTC in third and fourth place
Sony jumped to third place with 8.8 million units shipped, marking its first appearance in the top 5 since end-2006. The Japanese vendor had a strong brand relaunch, with new products shipped this quarter. Its Xperia P, Xperia S, Xperia U and Xperia tipo boosted shipments, especially in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

Sony also topped the table in Japan with its new LTE products, the Xperia GX and Xperia SX, and accounted for over 14 percent of overall smartphone shipment in the country.