Apple dominated Japan’s smartphone market in 2020

According to research firm IDC (via Chalk), Apple dominated the smartphone market in Japan during the fourth quarter of 2020, with the iPhone brand accounting for more than half of all phone sales in the country.

According to the report, the mobile market reached 11.432 million shipments in the fourth quarter of 2020, and 52.6% of all smartphone sales in Japan were iPhones, contributing substantially to a 10.6% annual growth for the market country as a whole.

Apple shipments totaled 6.015 million units in Japan, an increase of 13.8% over the previous year, thanks mainly to the launch of the iPhone 12 series with 5G capacity.

Second, behind Apple, was Sharp, with 1,414 million units sold and a market share of 12.4%, while the local brand Kyocera was placed in third place with a market share of 7.0% and 801,000 units sold.

Samsung came in fourth with a 6.8% market share, selling 781,000 units, followed by Sony – traditionally the Japanese brand’s favorite – which came in fifth with 732,000 shipments and a 6.4% share, with other smaller brands making up the rest of the shipments.

Looking at 2020 as a whole, Apple sold the majority of smartphones in Japan, with a 46.5% market share, shipping 15.637 million units that yielded an 8.3% growth year on year. Meanwhile, Sharp, Fujitsu, Samsung and Kyocera had market shares of 13.3%, 8.3%, 8.1% and 7.5%, respectively, with smaller domestic brands accounting for the rest.

Despite a delay in the launch of the ‌iPhone 12‌ series in Japan due to the global health crisis, Apple has remained the undisputed champion brand of mobile phones in the country, where iOS regularly accounts for more than 60 percent of the operating system market, in comparison with 50 percent of the market in the United States. Japan is also usually the best in terms of countries where ondeiPhone‌ models are cheaper.