Sony launched the Xperia Z and the Xperia ZL at the International CES in January 2013. The Sony Xperia Z smartphone touts high-end specifications that can rival any other smartphone and now recent reports suggest that the device has been sold out in many markets, which may indicate that a strong competitor has emerged to challenge Samsung and Apple.

DigiTimes cites sources in the handset supply chain and says "Volumes of the 5-inch Full HD Xperia allocated for sale in Japan, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Taiwan were all fully booked on the first day when distributors began to take pre-sale orders in the markets, the sources revealed."

The Xperia Z sports a 5-inch full HD Reality Display with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, and has a pixel density of 443ppi. The display is made of shatter-proof sheet on scratch-resistant glass. Both the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL feature a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with Adreno 320GPU.

The smartphone also has 16GB of on-board storage, 2GB of RAM, a 13.1-megapixel primary camera, 2.2-megapixel secondary camera, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The Xperia Z is one of the first top-end smartphones that is dust and water resistant.

"Sony Mobile aims to ship 50 million smartphones in fiscal 2013 compared to 34 million units shipped in the previous fiscal year, according to a company internal estimate," reports DigiTimes.

Rivals smartphone makers are expected to release their flagship handsets soon, which include the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and probably Apple's next-generation iPhone. If Sony achieves a sales target of 50 million units in 2013, then it may well find itself in the top five smartphone makers.