Debt - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended			1 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012	Oct. 31, 2012	Oct. 31, 2011	Sep. 30, 2012 Brightstar Corp. [Member]	Oct. 31, 2012 Loan payable to Brightstar Corp., interest at LIBOR plus 4.0% payable annually, due September 2015 [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Senior notes [Member]	Oct. 31, 2012 Senior notes [Member]	Jan. 31, 2012 Senior notes [Member]
Debt Disclosure [Line Items]
Senior notes, face value	$ 350,000,000	$ 350,000,000				$ 350,000,000	$ 350,000,000	$ 0
Senior notes, annual interest rate						3.75%	3.75%
Proceeds from issuance of senior notes, net	345,800,000	345,810,000	0
Debt discount	1,300,000						1,304,000	0
Debt issuance costs	$ 2,900,000
Senior notes redemption percentage						100.00%
Redemption options of senior notes						The greater of (i) 100% of the principal amount of the Senior Notes to be redeemed or (ii) the sum of the present values of the remaining scheduled payments of principal and interest on the Senior Notes being redeemed (exclusive of interest accrued to the date of redemption), discounted to the date of redemption on a semi-annual basis (assuming a 360-day year consisting of twelve 30-day months) at a rate equal to the sum of the applicable Treasury Rate plus 50 basis points, plus accrued and unpaid interest up to the date of redemption.
Number of basis points to be added to the discounted present value of remaining scheduled payments						50 basis points
Debt, maturity date					September 2015
Annual interest rate on loans payable in addition to LIBOR					4.00%
Percentage of ownership interest acquired				50.00%