Counterpoint Research estimates that Apple AAPL -0.68% captured 34% of the 2.8 million unit Japanese mobile phone sales in September up from an estimated 14% in both July and August. Counterpoint Director Neil Shah said that the iPhone 5s sold almost half a million units in just a few days and for the month the company sold just under 1 million units. Besides being well accepted in Japan the addition of NTT DOCOMO DCM +1.4% with its 60 million subscribers seems to be having a major impact on iPhone sales. Commenting on this performance, Counterpoint’s Director Tom Kang notes, “This is the first time any handset brand has crossed the 30% mark in the last decade in one of the most modern digital handset market in the world, Japan.”

Mr. Kang, further added, “Japan has always been a competitive market with more than ten handset brands being tightly controlled by the three major mobile operators, thus making it impossible for a single brand to capture a record one-third of the market. Even Sharp Sharp, after ruling the Japanese mobile handset market for almost 5 years had only reached 26% share during its peak.

Apple’s Japan revenue has been growing faster and sometimes significantly faster than the rest of the company for the past seven quarters. In the June 2013 quarter its revenue of $2.5 billion (7% of the total company) grew 26.6% year over year while the rest of the company declined 1%.

Localytics estimates that Japan had the highest concentration of iPhone 5c’s and 5s’ with almost 10% of all active iPhones being the new models with the next highest concentration being the U.S. at 6.4%. This is another data point supporting the iPhone’s strength in Japan.

Counterpoint Research also estimated that Apple more than doubled its smartphone market share in the U.S. during September going from 17% to 39%.

By: DocMemory
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