After Sony’s new Xperia Z appeared on the show floor at CES on Monday, we were certain that the Japanese company would make it official soon after. And it’s now done just that. The Xperia Z is its latest flagship smartphone, with a 5-inch 1080p display, a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, and a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera.

Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC failed to meet analysts’ estimates during the fourth quarter of 2012, posting an operating income that of just NT$600 million ($21 million). The average estimate from 20 industry analysts was NT$1.11 billion, according to Bloomberg — that’s almost double the figure HTC actually achieved.

Samsung and Apple are the only two smartphone vendors currently seeing growth in the United States, and although it was Apple that saw the most between September and November of last year, it’s Samsung who will attract most customers throughout 2013. The Korean electronics giant will see 35% growth over the next 12 months, according to Strategy Analytics, further increasing the lead over its arch rival in Cupertino.

Apple and Samsung are the only two smartphone manufacturers currently seeing any growth in the United States. The pair are slowly eating away at the market share held by their rivals, including LG, Motorola, Research in Motion, and HTC. In the three months leading up to November 2012, Samsung increased its market share from 25.7% to 26.9%, but Apple is catching up with the Cupertino company enjoying slightly more growth.

Microsoft has beaten Apple and Google to the acquisition of R2 Studios, a small home entertainment technology startup from the founder of Sling Media. R2 is famous for an Android app that allows users to control things like lighting and appliances throughout their homes, and its thought the company’s technology will help Microsoft push its Xbox console even further into home entertainment.