Apple dominates the Japanese smartphone market with 72 percent

1st May, 2010 by adina
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MM Research Institute has released a study which shows that Apple dominates the Japanese smartphone market. Information for the fiscal year that ended in March shows that the iPhone had 72.2 percent of its field with 2.34 million units sold. Its closest rival, HTC, had only 11.1 percent, while local handsets where only ranked third, Toshiba detaining 6.8 percent.

The iPhone’s shipments were more than double the 1.1 million devices that were shipped a year earlier. In its latest quarterly results Apple had already said that quarterly shipments for the first months of this year were up 183 percent in Japan versus a year earlier.

However, Apple’s results were not enough to get the lead in the total Japanese phone market but allowed it to be ranked higher than a number of smaller Japanese companies. Sharp had a comfortable lead with 26.2 percent for the fifth consecutive year. It was helped by its carrier-independent, camera-focused AQUOS Shot line-up. Other Japanese companies followed, such as Panasonic with 15.1 percent, Fujitsu at 15 percent, NEC with 10.5 percent, Kyocera with 6.1 percent and Sony Ericsson with 5.5 percent.

Analysts from MMRI credited Apple’s growing share to the approximate state of rival operating systems in Japan. According to MMRI, Windows Phone and Android would only get traction this year. The relatively small slice of the market the iPhone detains is partly determined by an exclusive presence at SoftBank, small enough if compared to KDDI’s Au or NTT DoCoMo. Most Japanese companies detain at least one phone model, but often several, at each carrier of the top three.

Japan has traditionally opted for handsets without smartphone-class operating systems but in more cases have a wide range of advanced and even proprietary features. Many of them have relatively large screens and sport built-in 1Seg TV tuners in order to accommodate long commute times in major cities. FeliCa, which is a near-field wireless payment system, is also usually present and allows residents pay for public transit or store items simply by passing the phone next to a receiver. As the iPhone has none of these features built-in, had to rely on companion devices to achieve the missing features. Its advanced and easier to use software is contrasting to the limited but complex interfaces of many native handsets.


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