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Apple’s market share in Japan overtakes USA, with more to come

Photo: japantimes.co.jp

Apple’s share of the smartphone market in Japan has hit 37 percent, greater than the 36 percent share in the USA, reports the WSJ.

Sales got another boost in late September when NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest wireless carrier, began offering the iPhone for the first time to its 61.8 million customers. Even before that, the iPhone was Japan’s best-selling smartphone, with a 37% market share in the six months ended Sept. 30, according to Tokyo’s MM Research Institute. That’s comparable to the iPhone’s 36% share in the U.S. in the third quarter, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech … 

Given that most of that share was acquired before DoCoMo offered the iPhone, the prediction of one analyst doesn’t seem quite as far-fetched as it might sound.

Timothy Arcuri, a managing director at Cowen & Co., estimates that Apple will sell 11 to 12 million iPhones in Japan in 2013, roughly double from an estimated five to six million in 2012. He expects that number to grow to about 20 million iPhones next year […]

“They’re going to be close to 50% market share next year.”

Japan is the world’s fourth largest smartphone market, behind China, the USA and India, and it had previously been predicted that the DoCoMo deal would enable the iPhone to become the market leader. The iPad already holds more than a 50 percent tablet market share in the country.

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Comments

  1. Lars Pallesen - 10 years ago

    But, but … how can this be? Wired Magazine told us all that “the japanese hate the iPhone” ? http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/02/why-the-iphone/

  2. jorchid - 10 years ago

    Great!

  3. Majdi (@Musouka) - 10 years ago

    It’s strange that NTT DoCoMo decided to carry the iPhone 5S/C but not the iPad Air/MiniR

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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