Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Odds and ends, Apple Financial, iPhone
iPhone 3GS ranked #1 in cellphone sales in Japan... for now.
TG Daily (via Fortune) is reporting that Japanese market research company BCN's latest rankings of cellphone sales in Japan are showing that Apple's smartphone is the the current market leader in that country.I did a quick check at BCN this afternoon while writing this post, and the iPhone 3GS 32GB is listed in first place in sales (see screenshot at right), with the iPhone 3GS 16GB in second place. The 3GS was just introduced in Japan on June 26th, and the sales figures are from the week of June 22 - 28. BCN's source of data includes point-of-sale information from many of Japan's largest electronics retailers, including Amazon Japan, Eiden, Bic Camera, K's Denki, and Best Denki.
Akky Akimoto at Asiajin is providing some perspective on the numbers. It's not unusual for a new phone to jump to the top of the list as it is released. As he notes, the Sony Network Walkman was #1 in the BCN ranking of music players at one time in 2005, but for the complete year, Apple iPod had a 60% share of the Japanese market.
Still, this is good news for Apple, and as Mr. Akimoto says, "Becoming No. 1 even for a week is better than never being No. 1..."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Slab said 10:27PM on 7-05-2009
Was the pre released in japan yet?
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iphonerulez said 10:38PM on 7-05-2009
The Pre hasn't been released overseas yet. Palm barely has enough inventory to supply the U.S.
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Maldaen said 12:28AM on 7-06-2009
Why is this even a story? Japan has been noted as being 2nd in iPhone 3G sales after the US. It's odd what people deem a success or failure when Japan becomes involved.
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dimitri008 said 12:42AM on 7-06-2009
Everyone is for some reason under the belief that Japanese cell phones are better in every way because they have more features, however most of them aren't even used, or can't easily be used, by normal users. It's no surprise to me why the iPhone is doing so well - it is actually easy and enjoyable to use. Honestly, just the advanced font smoothing of Japanese fonts would be convincing enough for me - I just can't see how they got used to pixel aligned kanji in the first place.
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akimoto+tuaw said 1:35AM on 7-06-2009
> Maldaen
How could you know that Japan's sales is No.2 in the world? There are no number of the iPhone 3G unit sales disclosed in Japan ever. All numbers you might see are someone else's guestimate. I don't know why Apple and Softbank tries to hide it if it is sold well.
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powsurfer said 9:22PM on 7-15-2009
I agree
I don't know why they wouldn't release this kind of information, as it would only lead to more people buying the iPhone in Japan.
Most people in Japan want to buy what's selling at #1, they want the most popular thing right now, and most of all they will pay anything to get the latest and greatest thing on the market.
so maybe its a marketing ploy when they say iPhone 3GS is the top selling phone.
going to work everyday, I count the number of cell phones vs iphones and the stats are terrible. average 1 iPhone in 40 regular cell phones. that's 2.5% of what I see with my own eyes everyday.
where are all the iPhones in japan if they sold so many??
David said 12:51AM on 7-06-2009
Japanese are known for being tech junkies. That they'd flock to the iPhone over their domestic gadgets validates Apple's latest and greatest.
I like how it ends with "for now." New Blackberries on the near horizon and anything can happen in this new smartphone arms race.
Fingers crossed for an iPhone 4G:HD in a year!
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elliot said 12:59AM on 7-06-2009
With the new open dock connector, I wouldn't be surprised if there were add on hardware for some of the features Japanese tech users want, like subway pass and paying for items, and TV. Maybe all together in a Japan-pack. That'd pretty well put the iphone on par feature-wise to the other Japanese phones, and maybe one up it because the features will be accessible.
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Jordan said 1:01AM on 7-06-2009
They must mean Number 1 in overheating
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Mike Puchol said 2:10AM on 7-06-2009
Heh...and Movistar without iPhone 3GS in any of their stores in Barcelona! WTF is Apple doing dealing with these bunch of incompetents? One reply I even got was that "Movistar is building up expectation so they will sell more iPhones" - dude, you are going to sell many many iPhones no matter what, so if you have iPhones stashed away somewhere, SEND THEM TO THE STORES. If not, then they must have ordered 5k phones for the launch Friday and that's it, because it's now over TWO WEEKS and I still haven't found an iPhone 3GS...
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JH2071 said 2:52AM on 7-06-2009
There is already an iPhone accessory that does One-Seg TV (with an add-on battery pack) in Japan, as far as I know. It came out shortly after the 3G was released here.
As far as these numbers are concerned, I wrote up my own analysis of the original article here: http://51future.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/more-analysis-on-the-iphones-no-1-sales-records-last-week-in-japan/
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Jasenpfeffer said 7:31AM on 7-06-2009
Great headline... "iPhone 3GS ranked #1 in cellphone sales in Japan... for now." It ranks up there with such great hits as, "I'm awake... for now," "I'm full... for now," and "Britney Spears most popular teen idol... for now."
Aren't a lot of things "for now"? Many languages reflect that concept through their incorporation of a past tense, whether it be grammatically generated or implied. Rankings themselves are generally "for now," which is partly why they have to be conducted so often, right?
Sorry, but there's something unnecessarily sensational about "for now" in a headline. And when it comes to articles about the iPhone in Japan, they very often seem to be written in a manner that implies that the iPhone doing well in Japan is either something unexpected, something out of the ordinary, or something that will be short-lived. This title adds to that fine body of work.
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powsurfer said 10:35AM on 7-14-2009
great article.
but can someone tell me or lead me to where I could get the actual sales numbers of the iPhone 3GS in japan?
this article only says the 32GB was #1 in sales and the 16GB was #2, I would like to know the actual # of units sold.
Thank you
Julian.
PS. today the lists are completely changed and the Sharp Aquos Shot is sitting at #1 and the 32GB iPhone is at #2 with the 16GB iPhone way down at #9
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mack123 said 1:41PM on 7-18-2009
http://www.puremobile.com/apple-iphone-3gs-unlocked what is the difference between 3G and the 3GS? nad am i able to yous this phone with my GSM service provider(AT&T)?
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