Nielsen: Android, Sharp, Apple tops in Japan
updated 08:27 pm EDT, Mon August 20, 2012
One in four mobile consumers owns a smartphone
In Japan, as in the rest of the world, Google's Android operating system is the top mobile platform; and Apple remains the top individual smartphone manufacturer. This according to new figures out from market research firm comScore, which surveyed more than 4,000 Japanese mobile subscribers for its most recent study. The study also found considerable growth in the Japanese smartphone audience, with the number of smartphone users growing 43 percent since the beginning of the year.
According to comScore, about one out of every four Japanese mobile consumers now owns a smartphone. That's a stark difference from the United States, where a study in late March found that half of mobile customers own smartphones. Smartphones are dramatically increasing their share of the market, though, and Google's Android is the dominant platform with 64.1 percent of the market. Apple's iOS platform accounts for 32.3 percent, and no other operating system broke the double digit percentage mark.
More than 24 million people, or 23.5 percent of the overall mobile population, owned a smartphone in the three months ending in June.
Japanese manufacturer Sharp accounted for 22.6 of the overall market, which includes feature phones. Panasonic, Fujitsu, NEC, and Sony rounded out the top five manufacturers.
Apple's 32.3 percent of the smartphone market marks it as the largest individual smartphone manufacturer in Japan. The company's iPhone 4S was named the biggest-selling smartphone in Japan earlier this year. Apple's continuing success in the country resulted in Nikkei BP Consulting awarding the company the position of top home brand for the first time in March.
