Sony is getting serious with its mobile offerings giving the likes of Samsung and Apple a run for their money. Consumer reports from the UK indicate the Sony's position in the market is improving, and Samsung is paying for that cost.

Sony Xperia Z has been selling well in the United Kingdom. The device will be hitting the United States soon via T-Mobile. Sony's newest smartphone is selling so well that around 38 per cent of its market share in the United States were previous users of Samsung Galaxy. IDC reported that the company currently ranks third as the best-selling manufacturer in Europe. Sony comes after Samsung and Apple.

IDC also indicated that Sony is the fourth best-selling maker of smartphones in the United Kingdom.

Kantar revealed that 38 per cent of the Samsung-to-Sony conversions were mainly Galaxy 2 users. Users expressed their interest more over the Xperia Z compared to the S4 or any other similar device from Samsung. What is causing Samsung users to shift to Sony? Kantar analysts offer Samsung a word of advice: look in the mirror.

Samsung has managed to rank past Apple, but the company has been caught up with their competition and its feud with Apple that it is losing sight on the emerging competitors like Sony. Samsung's products are looking more like Apple's, whether it is software or hardware. A closer look at Galaxy phones will reveal that they are the only Android devices featuring a center home button - a trademark for iPhone. The TouchWiz is also similar to the iOS.

Other players like Sony, LG and HTC are coming up with better and even higher end-alternatives. These provide consumers a fresh set of products to check out - in Sony's case, people are realising they want the Xperia Z interface more than the Galaxy Note 2.

The line of Xperia X products will hit U.S. soon and regardless whether the American will follow the trend in the U.K. towards Sony conversion, there will be three things that will determine Sony's success there: price, carrier availability and media reception. Sony will have to go beyond T-Mobile to reach a bigger market.

Sony is also beefing up its game console. As a leading player for many years and the hype over the Playstation 4 following the mixed reviews over Xbox One, Sony is not playing safe. The company is using input from game developers to make sure the PS4 caters to the market just fine. PS4 architect Mark Cerny believes inputs from others are essential for the console's success.

"We figured out that third parties were essential for the platform's success," Mr Cerny said. The market will have to see how the PS4 will do. In Ken Kutaragi's time, the father of the Playstation, the company operated differently. Mr Kutaragi acts based on his intuition, much like Apple's Steve Jobs.