After being hit by a series of bad news in the past months, it looks like Sony Mobile can end 2012 on a good note. The Xperia maker has snatched the title of the second best-selling Android manufacturer in the UK from HTC.

The latest sales figures reveal that Sony has sold over 500,000 Android phones so far, while HTC managed to shift around 440,000 phones.

Sony UK’s managing director Pierre Peron said that the company is now “considered a top player” in the UK, thanks to its recent rebranding and “the major marketing campaign behind Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie” for the Xperia T. It’s one more thing that the 007 agent can add to his resume, a great marketer.

In case you’re wondering who the number one champ is in the UK, it’s none other than Samsung. The Koreans sold a whopping 3.2 million Android phones during the same period this year.