Sony may be about to unleash a range of new handsets on specific regions around the world as the Japanese firm looks to become the third largest smartphone manufacturer.
Currently the smartphone world is dominated by Samsung and Apple which account for over half of the market, with Sony sandwiched in between the Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE who sit in third and fifth respectively.
Sony has its eyes on toppling the Chinese competition and Reuters reports that the firm's head of mobile business Kunimasa Suzuki confirmed it will alter its smartphone development for each market.
Budget handsets for some
This suggests that Sony will produce handsets to target particular regions, so we could see a swath of entry level devices roll off the production line destined for the emerging markets.
Firefox OS may be the catalyst to propel Sony into developing countries as the cut down, HTML 5 based platform is destined to land on its devices later this year and looks to provide users with a natural step from feature to smartphone.
Sony enjoyed decent success during the heyday of Sony Ericsson but the brand dwindled in more recent years, with Sony finally pulling the plug on the partnership last year to go solo to go solo.
It's witnessed a relatively strong revival over the last 12 months with the new Sony Xperia Z being the standout handset thus far.
We've been less impressed with Sony's budget offerings, such as the Xperia Miro and Xperia Tipo, but the company has the drive behind it to potentially grab that highly coveted third place.
