Samsung’s share of Japanese phone market grows in Q2

Samsung Electronics’ presence in the Japanese smartphone market rose to the highest level in six years in the second quarter thanks to robust sales of new models, industry data showed Monday.

The Korean tech giant shipped about 600,000 smartphones to Japan in the April-June period to take up 9.8 percent of the country’s smartphone market, according to the data compiled by Strategy Analytics.

Samsung was well behind its U.S. rival Apple with 50.8 percent, while coming ahead of two Japanese brands, Sharp and Sony, which took third and fourth, respectively, the market research firm said.

Samsung’s smartphone share in Japan had dipped to 3.4 percent 2016 due to stiff competition with Apple and Japanese brands, but it has steadily rebounded since 2017.

In March, the firm opened its new flagship store for Galaxy smartphones in downtown Tokyo ahead of its launch of its new Galaxy S10 flagship model.

Samsung, an Olympic Partner in wireless communications equipment, has been exploring ways to expand its foothold in the Japanese market as Japanese mobile carriers are preparing to power broadscale 5G networks during the international sports event.

Yonhap