When Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg claims a 17% share of the market for Android smartphones, it's easy to dismiss that claim as crazy or misinformed. After all, the only Android phone available from the Sony
But then, you're forgetting about the world outside U.S. borders. Sony Ericsson isn't huge domestically, but remains a large presence in market geographies like Europe and Asia. Specifically, the company expects China to become its largest market "in the next four to five years."
China Unicom
The ongoing move from making untold millions of value-priced, basic cell phones to building higher-ticket Android smartphones is working out rather well for Sony Ericsson. Its average selling prices are on the rise, and Nordberg claims a 4% global share of the total cell phone market by volume, but a 7% share when counted by dollars.
So it all comes down to how you count your numbers -- global or local, dollars or units? I can see how at least one of those calculations shows Sony Ericsson in second place with a 17% market share, when defined just so. Should Apple, whose largest market is in the U.S., be scared of this rising rival? I don't think so.