Sony Mobile Communications will continue to ramp up its share in the over-NT$15,000 (US$462) segment of Taiwan's smartphone market in 2016 although high-end smartphones' share of the overall local market is declining, according to Sony Mobile Taiwan general manager Jonathan Lin.

There were a total of 2.108 million smartphones shipped in the local market in the first quarter of 2016 and nearly 30% of them were models priced at above NT$15,000, and Sony Mobile had a market share of about 40% for high-end Android models, Lin indicated.

Sony Mobile expects its share in the over-NT$15,000 Android phones to rise further in June thanks to the recently released new models of its Xperia Z5 Premium series in the local market, Lin said.

However, Lin noted that the share of the over-NT$15,000 segment in the local smartphone market is expected to slide to 30% in 2016 compared to 40-45% previously.

Sony Mobile also plans to introduce its new flagship family products, the Xperia X, Xperia X Performance and Xperia XA, into the local market in June with prices and timetable to be decided later, Lin added.