Sony Mobile Communications Inc. is a multinational mobile phone manufacturing company jointly headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and Lund, Sweden, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was founded on October 1, 2001 as a joint venture between Sony and the Swedish telecommunications equipment company Ericsson, under the name Sony Ericsson. Sony Mobile was the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer by market share in the fourth quarter of 2012 with 9.8 million units shipped.