Sony breaks into Europe's smartphone top three

There's no prize for guessing which two companies have the most popular smartphones in terms of European sales in the latest IDC figures but propping up Samsung (14.3 million) and Apple (6.2 million) in third place, having shipped 3.2 million handsets, is Sony, which at first glance is a surprise. However, an equally quick glance at the company's current smartphone range shows that it is starting to reap the benefits of putting design and features above specifications in the pursuit of creating better products and in differentiating those products from the hundreds of competitors in the Android smartphone space. In particular, its latest flagship phone, the Xperia Z, which was launched in January, wowed the crowds at CES and has managed to have a similar impact on the smartphone-buying public. Not only does it boast a wonderful 5-inch full HD display that uses the same panel technology found in Sony TVs, it also draws on the company's equally impressive digital music and camera technology to offer a truly compelling alternative to the Samsung Galaxy SIV and one that's also water and dust resistant -- it's little wonder that the handset has held on to the number one sport in its native Japan since the day of its launch. The company has also worked hard to bring similar features and design standards to its mid-range handsets, such as the Xperia SP and Xperia L, which were launched in March. The SP supports LTE 4G for ultra-fast mobile internet connection and also boasts a full high-definition 4.8-inch display, while the Xperia L has an exceptional camera and features the same High Dynamic Range technology for still and moving images found in the Xperia Z. The Xperia L also has dedicated camera function buttons meaning that the phone can go from sleep to full camera mode in little more than a second, even when the phone is also locked. And it's this attention to detail, along with the choice of premium alloys over plastics in the manufacturing process, that will help Sony continue to carve out a niche in this most competitive of markets. It is also worth noting that HTC's sales don't feature in IDC's latest figures (they were that low) but that its equally well-designed and well-considered HTC One handset wasn't launched until Q2 of 2013, meaning that when the next batch of figures are published, the ranking could have changed significantly. In all, over the first quarter of 2013, 31.6 million smartphones were shipped to western Europe in total (a 12% increase over the same period in 2012) and that in terms of popularity, Android is still the leading operating system (69% market share) followed by Apple's iOS (20%) with Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform in third place with a 6 percent market share.