It’s big in Korea, it’s probably big in China’s grey market, and the iPhone continues to be big in Japan. According to a report [JP] released by Tokyo-based research company Impress R&D, the iPhone has captured a whopping 46.1% of the domestic smartphone market.
For this year, Impress sees the 3G commanding 24.6% in this segment, while the 3GS contributes another 21.5%. The 3G was introduced in Japan in summer 2008 (the 3GS followed earlier this year). Sources in Japan say that the iPhone user base in Japan now stands at 3 million, which is an impressive 10% of the global userbase.
Three models from Willcom, a Japanese mobile phone carrier, are ranked 3 to 5. The HTC HT-03A (aka HTC Magic), the first Android phone in Japan, made it to No. 10 (2.3%). The BlackBerry Bold, which is offered by Japan’s No. 1 carrier Docomo, is one rank behind with 1.2%.
A major reason for this development is the hyper-aggressive marketing strategy SoftBank Mobile, the iPhone’s exclusive carrier, pursues in Japan: TV commercials virtually around the clock, print ads in major media, super-competitive pricing etc. do have an effect, it seems.
On the other hand, I’ve never seen any of this coming from Docomo for Android or BlackBerry, so it’s no wonder virtually no one in Japan (where I live) knows what these devices actually offer – apart from geeks, obviously.
> The iPhone is huge [...] and Android aren’t
You want a ‘huge’ difference? Try this one…
iPhone intro (3GS model) = July, 2008
Android intro (HTC Magic) = July, 2009
Softbank’s recent marketing efforts notwithstanding, let’s also note that iPhone hit Japan concurrent with the worldwide launch. Surely, the introductory hype raised all boats.
Also, the iPhone handset and data plan prices were lowered, dramatically, at the start of 2009. Now, the 16GB model is ~$120 while the 8GB model is free. Data plan costs only ~$46/mo.
Meanwhile, the HTC Magic – cleverly renamed to ‘HT-03a’ is still offered at the relatively high price of ~$300. Also, there are complaints that it doesn’t support ‘@docomo’ email addresses.
Mobilecrunch research not so huge?
“Mobilecrunch research not so huge?”
Research on what? Excuses?
3 million is the only interesting (and impressive) part.
The numbers on smartphone marketshares seems inflated compared to the world/other markets because Nokia isn’t around to dilute the so-called smartphone market with their E-series lolsmartphone.
Ahem. The iPhone 3GS came out in June/July 2009, not 2008. The iPhone 3G came out in mid-2008.
“Mobilecrunch research not so huge?”
At least Mobilecrunch knows the 3GS didn’t launch in 2008.
Hmm…
That doesn’t seem to tie up with the sales figures. According to this Apple has 25% of the Japanese market with the iPhone 3G in 2008.
However, according to Gartner, Apple sold 11.5 million smartphones in total in 2008. Half of these were in the US which leaves 6 million for the rest of the world.
I suppose it’s possible that the iPhone could have – under the definitions in the document below – have achieved that amount of the market given that the smartphone market in Japan appears to be pretty small – 1.5 million units. However, I’d be interested to see it up against the advanced multi-function mobiles that actually dominate.
http://www.mcpc-jp.org/english/pdf/news.pdf
Hey, Marky, how’s those Flagship Nokia stores doing, by the way?
Hey Mark, let’s see Apple had 25% of the market with the 3G in 2008. Have you checked the first three quarterly results for 2009? Apple is now selling as many phones in a quarter as they did last year. Your numbers MIGHT be a bit old….
I was first skeptical of this article because I had read an earlier article (2/2009) in Wired about the iPhone doing badly with Japanese consumers. http://bit.ly/89go4D
It turns out that the article had not been fully researched and one men the article quoted wrote a follow-up post to it: his view on how the iPhone was doing in Japan http://bit.ly/7C6yHJ
Seems as if Japan has been warming to the iPhone!
I hate to be like this…but…..
Does the iPhone come with AT&T service in Asia? Don’t think so.
If AT&T didn’t have the exclusive rights to the iPhone here, you’d see similar numbers.
Softbank is the third-ranked carrier with spotty coverage and lots of dropped calls, so I think we somewhat have the AT&T experience here.
@Serkan Have you not seen the Google Phone commercials on TV?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0nI68N3lnI
That is a silly comparison to make – the only real similarity between ATT and Softbank is that they both carry the iPhone. First of all ATT is the 2nd largest carrier in the US while Softbank is the smallest of the big 3 in Japan. However, this has been cause in part because they are the newest player in the market place. They also had 3 years of horrendous mismanagement by vodaphone (who they bought the wireless service from) to take care of.
However, Softbank seems to have been putting a lot of money and effort into upgrading their network and improving their brand image. In fact for the last few quarters they have added more new subscribers than either of the other 2 carriers.
Furthermore, part of the coverage problem is being caused by the fact that they are also the only one of the big 3 who have been locked out of part of the 3G spectrum. This makes it harder to cover as much area as the other 2 – this will change in a couple of years.
However, other than having a smaller coverage area than KDDI or NTT (something which is getting a lot better) I have not heard of the dropped call problem or any of the other quality problems that have plagued ATT.
Isn’t this kind of misleading? I mean yes, if you limit the definition of “smartphone” to being just American-style devices running OSs developed by North American companies (RIM, Apple, Microsoft, Google), then it is no real surprise that Apple is doing well in that category. I mean, how many companies are giving away free BlackBerries or WinMo devices like they are giving away the iPhone? However, how representative is that of the general market? Is that even a big-enough market segment to merit its own study? For example, I hear Apple still hasn’t caught up with Disney Mobile for number of subscribers on Softbank’s network.
lol @ smart phones even being that big in japan. This is hardly notable as most of their “non-smart” phones do more for them and are more practical than the “smart phones” including the iphone.
Your definition of “practical” is really weird.
iPhone sells well in Japan because no matter how many astonishing features the other smartphones has, they all are GODAWFUL to use. One thing I’ve learned from Japanese companies is that they do not know how to make a proper interface (I love my PS3, but the browser is horrible).
Iphone slow in Indonesia , but Blackberry is the winner
Just to expand a little bit on this… The iPhone is one of the CHEAPEST phones in Japan right now, in the Softbank line up. Right now, the 32 GB 3GS is just over $5 per month on a 26 month contract, and they give you a $10 discount on “unlimited” data. The 16 GB 3GS is essentially free, over the 26 month contract. When you look at the what Softbank is offering for “free” on a 26 month contract right now, you basically can choose from models that were released over 2 years ago. Which phone would you choose?
Price does matter in this economy.
Apple iPhone 3G still has a higher position, but I don’t think it’s because phone options. Sure, it’s more because AD’s everywher over Internet, TV and paper media. But if think about quality towards price, I’d better choose Google Android or BlackBerry model. Yes, they not so often advertising, but joy from using such a device is really powerful…