You might say the iPhone is performing rather well in Japan, as a report tells us that Apple’s handset has taken almost 37% of that country’s entire mobile phone market, well in front of arch-rival Samsung.
According to the latest statistics from Tokyo-based market research firm MM Research Institute Ltd., Apple’s iPhone accounted for 36.6 percent of all Japanese mobile phone shipments for the year ended in March, reports Bloomberg.
That 36.6% share of the market is up from 25.5% a year ago. Apple shipped a total of 14.43 million iPhones in Japan during fiscal 2013. The larger jump is thanks in most part to Apple finally making a deal with NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest carrier.
Apple’s next closest competitor was Sharp, which shipped 5.14 million phones to take 13% of the market, while Sony shipped 4.8 million units for a 12.3% share. Samsung’s numerous handsets took a 5.7% share of the market, good for sixth place.
Considering that Apple was the top selling handset on all three major Japanese carriers, and took an amazing 68.7% of smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2013, this report comes of little surprise.
The DoCoMo agreement greatly helped Apple’s numbers. In its first full month of availability, (October), at the carrier, the iPhone accounted for 61% of DoCoMo’s smartphone sales.
