In the second quarter, Samsung Electronics posted the highest market share in Japan's smartphone market in six years. According to a market research company called Strategy Analytics (SA) on Aug. 26, Samsung Electronics shipped 600,000 units in the Japanese smartphone market in the second quarter, accounting for 9.8 percent of the market.
It is second only to Apple (50.8 percent). Japanese companies such as Sharp (7.2 percent) and Sony (7.0 percent) came in third and fourth. Sharp rose 2.1 percentage points from the same period last year, compared with 5.1 percent, while Sony dropped 3.3 percentage points from 10.3 percent. China's Huawei saw its market share fall by nearly half.
This is the highest in six years that Samsung Electronics has had a strong 10% share. Samsung Electronics had maintained a market share of more than 10 percent in the Japanese smartphone market in mid-2013, but its share fell to 5.6 percent in 2014, 4.3 percent in 2015 and 3.4 percent in 2016. Its market share is on the rise to 5.2 percent and 6.4 percent in 2018, starting to rebound in 2017.
The good second-quarter performance seems to be due to the popularity of the flagship model Galaxy S10 series released in the first half of the year in Japan.
In March, Samsung Electronics opened its Galaxy Harajuku, the largest Galaxy showcase in the world, and started to tap into the local smartphone market in earnest. Its strategy is to create a foundation for expanding its 5G network business in Japan and provide an opportunity for rebound in market share of Galaxy smartphones ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics' where 5G service is going to be applied for the first time.
In July, Samsung Electronics released the Galaxy S10 Plus Olympic edition in Japan to commemorate the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
