Samsung smartphones post highest market share in Japan in 6 years

In the second quarter of this year, South Korean mobile giant Samsung Electronics has recorded the highest market share of 9.8 percent in Japanese smartphone market in six years.

According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped roughly 600,000 units of smartphones to Japan during the quarter of 2019. The market share is the second highest following that of Apple’s 50.8 percent. Up one percentage point year-on-year, the figure is the highest for Samsung since 2013.

Until halfway through the year of 2013, Samsung managed to keep a two-digit market share in Japan, before turning south in 2014 (5.6%) and hitting the bottom in 2016 (3.4%). Starting from last year ‘s share of 6.4%, however, the company’s share began to rise and finally grew near two-digit figures in the second quarter. “Samsung is recovering its reputation thanks to the latest models such as the Galaxy S10, which are increasingly popular in Japan,” said an industry professional.

Following Samsung are other Japanese firms such as Sharp (7.2%) and Sony (7.0%). By contrast, Huawei of China has seen its market share plunge from 5.9% to 3.3% year-on-year, coming down to fifth. “Following the struggle in America, Huawei is not faring well in Japan. This shows that low-prices products lack competitiveness,” said an industry expert.

Samsung is planning to harness the appeal of premium models such as the Galaxy Note 10 to further boost its market share in Japan. In March, Samsung Electronics opened “Galaxy Harajuku”, the world’s largest showcase store that the South Korean firm has ever presented. In July, the company released a Galaxy S10 Olympic Edition to commemorate the Tokyo Olympic games in 2020. “Japan will expand its 5G network businesses for the Olympic games in Tokyo, and it will play a positive role for the success of the Galaxy franchise,” said a financial sector source


Keun-Hyung Yoo noel@donga.com