A new study published on Tuesday showed that Apple rode strong demand for the iPhone 5 to sell more phones in Japan than any other manufacturer in the full 2012 calendar period. This is a first for the American device maker.
Data from Counterpoint Research shows that by the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple’s iPhone accounted for 16 percent of the entire Japanese mobile phone market, feature phones included, which helped the company take an annual share of 15 percent for the year. As noted by The Next Web, Counterpoint’s study accounted for all handsets, both smartphones and feature phones.
The usual top-sellers in the Japanese market, Sharp and Fujitsu fell behind Apple for the first time in history, each taking 14% of the market. Sharp has previously been Japan’s number one handset maker for six years in a row.
Heavy promotion of the iPhone 5 by carriers Softbank and KDDI contributed greatly to Apple’s success in the Japanese marketplace. Telecom market leader DoCoMo, who doesn’t offer the iPhone, countered the iPhone invasion with offerings of other foreign smartphone offerings. At the end of the fourth quarter, Apple, Samsung, and LG took up half the market.
Counterpoint’s analysts’ take on Japan’s mobile market:
Japan was once considered to be like a Galapagos Island, an isolated terrain, in terms of mobile technology. It had its own unique digital cellular technology. It was far more advanced than any market in the world and it seemed nearly impossible for any foreign technology company to penetrate the market. Motorola had failed and Nokia had failed. The wave of smartphones has changed the situation now and it looks like the Japanese market is a market that can be transformed after all for better or worse.
In December we reported that DoCoMo blamed the iPhone for their biggest ever monthly loss of subscribers. Apple partners Softbank and KDDI saw huge month-to-month gains over the same period.
