Samsung continues to dominate the overall smartphone market worldwide, but in Japan, the Korean manufacturer isn’t seeing the same reception towards its smartphones as in other regions. According to industry data, Samsung managed to sell only 1 million units of its complete portfolio of smartphones in the July – September period, seeing its market share decline for the fourth consecutive year, with sales down from 1.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Many reasons are attributed to this, including the rise of local manufacturers like Sony (who sold around 900,000 more devices than Samsung), and also the launch of Apple’s new iPhone 5s and 5c – NTT DoCoMo, the nation’s largest carrier, offered Apple’s iPhones for the first time ever, contributing to the lower sales seen by Samsung’s phones despite being present in NTT DoCoMo’s lineup. It’s clear devices like the Galaxy Note 3 haven’t been able to change things around, and it remains to be seen if future smartphones like the Galaxy S5 will have any effect on Samsung’s shrinking market share in the country.
