I don’t put much faith in market data from companies selling research to sell their other ‘services’. If you ever observed how the backend research process works, you wouldn’t either. Nevertheless it’s fun to read and compare signposts along the never ending journey. MM Research Institute (MMRI) issued a PR tease for their Japanese smartphone marketshare report covering results for the first half of the Japanese 2021 fiscal year (April~September).
The Keitai Watch site paid for the full report and posted some numbers for the various MMRI breakdowns.
Marketshare ranking (all mobile phones)
- Apple: 41.1
- Sharp: 11.2
- Kyocera: 10.4
- Sony: 9.7
- Samsung: 9.2
- FCNT (Fujitsu): 6.7
- Other: 11.6
The category breakdowns show some interesting new developments
Marketshare ranking (smartphones only)
- Apple: 45.0
- Sony: 10.7
- Sharp: 10.4
- Samsung: 10.1
- OPPO: 6.2
- FCNT (Fujitsu): 5.9
The story here is that iPhone was selling well leading up to the iPhone 13 rollout, with the addition of Rakuten Mobile offering deeply discounted iPhone 12 and iPhone SE that could be bought with Rakuten Points certainly helping the most, once again demonstrating the power of the Rakuten Economic Zone.
Marketshare ranking (non-carrier SIM-Free only)
- Apple: 41.9
- Sharp: 18.7
- OPPO: 18.6
- XIAOMI: 7.1
- Samsung: 6.2
The non-carrier SIM-Free ranking interests me most. OPPO and XIAOMI released some interesting low end FeliCa Osaifu Keitai capable models recently. The surprisingly strong showing tells me that the market wants inexpensive SIM-Free Osaifu Keitai models. If there was a SIM-Free FeliCa/Osaifu Keitai ranking it would probably be Apple, OPPO and XIAOMI. OPPO wins because they deliver 5G and FeliCa for a very low price.
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