January handset shipments in Japan reach 2.1 million

JEITA published mobile handset shipment numbers for January 2010. The highlights are as follows:

• Mobile phone shipments in Japan reached 2.1 million units in January 2010, an 8.7% increase YoY
• Among those cellular phones' share accounted for 97.6%, with the rest going to PHS phones
• Mobile phones with one-seg TV chip shipped in 1.6 million units, an 6.4% increase YoY
• Installed base of one-seg phones reached 77.1%

Source: JEITA

Mobile phone sales drop by 29% in Japan in 2008

According to MM Research Institute, the cellphone shipments decreased by 29.3% YoY in Japan in 2008, totaling in 35.8 million units. Sharp was leading the pack for four years consecutively, shipping over 8 million handsets last year. International players failed to make a big impact in 2008, grouped in the Other category where Apple iPhone and HTC Diamond were notoriously visible. The 2009 outlook doesn't look bright as the handset shipments are expected to drop by another 7.5% hitting the low of 33.2 million units.

Source: MM Research Institute via Keitai Watch

Handset replacement cycle to get longer in Japan

Market researchers at MM Research Institute in Japan found out that almost half of domestic cell phone users intend keeping their current handset for a little over two years, which will lead to the longer replacement cycle and, therefore, will depress handset manufacturers' sales. On average, only one out of three users will buy a new handset within a year.

Source: MMRI

Forecast for multiple wireless subscriptions in Japan

While the proportion of Japan’s population using mobile phones has slowly reached around 80% and the prospects of further organic growth are bleak, the country’s industry players hope that the next growth will happen in the secondary mobile phone line ownership market. The trend of buying second or even third subscriptions is abundant in Europe where prepaid contracts are commonplace. Can Japan hope for the same rapid growth in multiple wireless contract ownerships? The answer is not likely since the prepaid contracts are banned here. However, some growth can be expected thanks to mainly enterprises buying phones for their employees. According to ROA Group’s forecast, almost 15 million mobile phones in 2008 can be attributed to a second-phone category. And this number should go way beyond 25 million by 2012. Japan’s unique case is that in most cases the users will actually get a new device, not just an additional SIM card to insert into their existing phone.

Source: ROA Group

Forecast: Mobile handset sales to drop by 7% in Japan in 2008

Market research firm M-report predicts mobile handset shipments in Japan will decrease by 7.2% falling below the 46 million units in 2008. While in 2007, Japan’s mobile phone market registered a 5.2% growth over the previous year, stopping short of 50 million mark at 49.55 millions, the year of 2008 promises to be a tough year because of recent handset subsidy regulations and global economic gloom. Other interesting facts from M-report’s press release include the following:

• Japan market witnessed the launch of 140 mobile phone models in 2007
• 99% of phones shipped in 2007 were 3G devices, up 10.6% YoY
• One percent of phones shipped in 2007 were 2G devices, down 89.3% YoY
• 45% of phones shipped in 2007 were mobile broadcasting TV (one seg) enabled devices

Source: M-Report

Dim forecast for Japanese handset market: reduced handset subsidies and longer replacement cycle

Japan’s mobile phone market has heavily relied on handset subsidies for a long time. Indeed, the handset subsidies were a great tool to boost new service subscriptions for wireless carriers and get a guaranteed financial inflow for handset manufacturers. However, the Japan’s handset market is nearly saturated now and relies on replacement sales to generate revenues for mobile phone makers. Pushed by the Japanese regulator, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, domestic carriers are going to gradually lessen their dependency on handset subsidies. The fight for customers will shift from using cheap handsets as a competitive differentiator to low-priced calling plans. This is going to hurt local handset vendors. The recent forecast from MM Research Institute draws a worrying picture for handset makers in this country. First of all, they estimate the total handset sales in Japan to reach 49.8 million in 2007. In 2010, they expect that number to decrease to 42.05 million. One of the reasons of such decrease is the replacement cycle that is going to get longer from current 26.8 months to 34.7 month in 2010. This means fewer handset shipments for mobile phone makers and as a result, the handset manufacturer market consolidation. Japanese vendors also need to consider overseas expansion in order to sustain in business.

Source: MMRI (Japanese)

One-seg handsets account for 55% of shipments

Recently, JEITA has published Japan’s cellular handset shipment numbers for December 2007. The total shipments in that month reached 4.76 million. One-seg handset shipments accounted for 55.5% of December’s total shipments. The installed base of one-seg handsets has passed 20 million by the end of 2007. Overall, the shipments of cellular handsets hit 49.6 million in 2007, up by 3.9% from previous year.

Source: JEITA

Gartner: Japan performed extremely well in 3Q

According to Gartner, the handset sales in Japan in 3Q07 were 21.8% up from a year ago, resulting in 13.1 million mobile phones being sold. Tokyo-based Gartner’s principal analyst for mobile communications research Nahoko Mitsuyama commented this as follows: “Japan performed extremely well this quarter, exhibiting one of the strongest performances worldwide. Sales to end users exceeded sales to the distribution channel by about one million units and excessive inventory that was built up in the second quarter of 2007 was successfully reduced in the third quarter.” I believe that mobile TV handset models contributed most to the increased demand for new phones.

Source: Gartner

Mobile TV phone shipments surpass 11m in Japan

Built-in TV tuners seem to be the next messiah for mobile handset manufacturers in Japan. Similar to cameras a few years ago, they are driving the handset sales up and becoming a default feature for new models. For instance, in July, 1.87 million TV phones were shipped, accounting for 36.6% of overall domestic shipments, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association. Overall, the installed base of cell phones with built-in one-seg TV tuners reached 11.77 million units by the end of July. Not to mention that the first shipments of one-seg phones just started in April 2006. What makes them so popular? First of all, getting the broadcast TV programs is free for handset users. Secondly, the quality of the reception and clarity of the picture is exceptionally good in most cases. These are the founding blocks to build a successful service. The strong sales of Sharp’s Aquos-branded TV phones even propelled the maker to the top market position. BCN Inc., a research company for information-technology products, estimates that Sharp accounted for 25.1% of the market share in the July-August period, nearly twice more of the 12.9% share held by second-ranked Panasonic.
Source: Asahi.com

Gartner: 2Q handset shipments at 12.1m in Japan

There was a 10.3% increase in handset shipments in Japan in 2Q07 compared with the last year results, according to market research company Gartner. However, the shipments dropped by 17.5% compared with 1Q07. In terms of actual numbers, 12.1 million of mobile handsets were shipped to Japanese consumers by phone manufacturers. If you spread this number across Japan's dozen or so handset manufacturers you'll get a picture of how small, compared to global market players, their margins might be. Anyway, the 2Q results are remarkable from a historical point of view. “Despite a quarter-on-quarter drop, this was the second-biggest second quarter in Japan's mobile devices history, since the same period in 2003, when camera phones drove replacement sales,” said Nahoko Mitsuyama, principal analyst for mobile communications research at Gartner, based in Tokyo.

Source: Gartner

Sharp is still undisputed handset leader in Japan: 1Q07 data

Sharp continues to hold its dominant position in Japan’s handset market through four consecutive quarters, increasing its market share to 22.6% in 1Q07 from 21.2% in 4Q06, reports IDC. Strong sales of Raku-Raku series phones are worth mentioning among other 1Q07 highlights as they helped Fujitsu get in the top five handset vendors.

Overall, handset shipments increased by 3% from last year, reaching the five-year record of 14.39 million handsets. National carriers’ flourishing spring handset collections targeting at various segments with ultra-thin and easy-to-use models and improvements in service and pricing contributed to this rather unusual burst in handset sales.

Source: IDC Japan

Japan’s mobile phone market: 2006 results

Japan finished 2006 with a 71.8% wireless penetration rate, which translates to 91.8 million people. Obviously, with the increase of the penetration rate, the net additions are slowing down with each year – 5.5m in 2005 versus 4.8m in 2006.

In 2006, the wireless market in Japan was dominated by DoCoMo with 51.1m users, trailed by KDDI with 25.4m of combined au and Tu-ka user bases, leaving Vodafone KK (now Softbank Mobile) on the third place with 15.2m customers.
The area, in which KDDI outperformed DoCoMo is ARPU, reaching JPY7,040 compared with DoCoMo’s JPY6,910. Vodafone traditionally finished in third place with JPY5,890.
Handset shipments have actually increased in 2006 hitting 48.7 million units compared with 44.8 million in the previous year, but less than 51 million handsets shipped in 2004.

Sharp holds top handset market share as of 4Q06

Sharp kept the top market share among Japan’s handset vendors in 4Q06, according to IDC Japan. Sharp was followed by Panasonic (11.4%), NEC (10.4%), Sony Ericsson (9.2%), Toshiba (9.1%), and other vendors splitting the remaining 38.7% of the market share. Overall, the handset shipments increased 11.2% from the same period in 2005, reaching 12.95 million in 4Q06.

Source: IT Media

Japanese cell phones: Healthy shipments in March 2006

JEITA’s March 2006 data shows revival in handset shipments in Japan compared to the previous year:

• The sales of cell phones and PHS handsets accounted for 6.05m terminals, a 127.7% increase from March 2005.
• By terminal type, cell phones grabbed a substantial share of shipments with 5.85m devices running on cellular networks and the rest being PHS handsets.
• As for the cell phone generations, 3G phones accounted for 5.24m terminals or 89.6% share, while 2G phones faced a further decline in shipments, making only 607 thousand.
• The total number of cell phone users in Japan by the end of March reached 91,792,000 people.

Gartner: 45 million handsets shipped in Japan in 2005

According to Gartner, Japanese carriers sold 11.7 million handsets in 4Q 2005, while the year 2005 total handset shipments reached 45 million terminals. The demand for music playback feature by youngsters drove the handset replacement purchases.

Among the top Japanese handset makers mentioned by Gartner were Sony Ericsson (5th place), Panasonic (8), NEC (9) and Sanyo (10). Apart from Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Sony and Swedish Ericsson, Japan’s domestic makers did not expand their market shares, failing to address the market needs or finding niche markets. The fragmentation of the domestic market also did not help improve the situation, because standalone Japanese makers lack the economies of scale to compete with the world leaders.

Source: Gartner press release (pdf, Japanese)

Japan ends 2005 with more than 90 million handset users

According to the Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA), in 2005 Japan's total cellular user base grew 0.6% on a yearly base, reaching 90.2 million subscribers.

In 2005, Japanese operators were pretty much occupied by switching their subscribers to 3G base. KDDI's initial lead in 3G disappeared as NTT DoCoMo finished the year with more than 20 million 3G subscribers. And DoCoMo still has a room to grow as it converted to 3G only around 40% of its user base, while KDDI is nearly out of human resources with 83% of its user base already enjoying 3G services. Vodafone was a big disappointment in 2005, losing customers during the whole year. However, Vodafone recorded some net additions in the last two months, which can be seen as a sign of recovery.

Report: Japan's domestic mobile phone shipments surge in October

Domestic mobile phone shipments in Japan jumped to 3.167 million units in October, up 32% from a year earlier, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.

Source: Forbes

Handset shipments upset Japan

According to Gartner, Japan was the only region where handset sales stopped in their growth and started falling in Q2 2005. Handset vendors shipped 10 million cell phones in Japan in Q2 2005, but compared with Q2 2004 results, it was down 600,000 handsets.

The main source of growth for the matured market of cellphones in Japan is replacement sales, but while the demand for phones with MP3 player and Internet browsing capability was strong, it was not enough to boost sales beyond the last year’s results.

Japan: New Handset Announcements in August

Vodafone introduced two handsets from Sharp in August: the V903SH, a WCDMA-compatible 3G phone, and the V302SH, running on 2G PDC network. DoCoMo, in its turn, released the F881iES, a.k.a. the FOMA Raku-Raku Phone 2 from Fujitsu.

The V903SH sells for ¥17,000~¥20,000 ($153~$180) with a new contract activation, while the entry-level V302SH’s price is set at ¥5,000 ($45) with a new contract.

DoCoMo’s FOMA Raku-Raku Phone 2 is the sixth in its series and spots ‘Easy Voice’ feature, which can make the hearing of the conversation partner easier by slowing down his speech. It sells for ¥22,000 ($198).
Source: ASCII24

June 2005: 3G handset shipments account for 70% in Japan

JEITA published the number of cellular phone shipments in Japan in June 2005. Overall, the sales of handsets in June 2005 totaled 4,170,000, which is 4.1% more than in June last year.

The growth in handset shipments was boosted by summer sales campaigns initiated by major carriers. Replacement upgrades were the main sales driver in a nearly saturated Japanese market.

PHS sales overcome last year results in straight five months -- 113,000 of PHS phones were sold in June 2005, which is 176.9% more than last year.

More importantly, Japan’s carriers continued to switch their subscribers from 2G to 3G handsets in big numbers. More than 3 million of 3G handsets were sold in June, pushing the share of 3G handset shipments to 70%.
Source: JEITA

Japan's top mobile handset sellers as of the first week of March

IT Media and Gfk Japan released a rank of best selling handset models by operator in the first week of March 2005. The study is based on handset sales information obtained from 3,500 kiosks throughout the country.

According to this study the five most selling DoCoMo's handsets are as follows:

1. N900iS
2. P901i
3. N506i
4. N901iC
5. P506iC

KDDI au's most popular phones are:

1. W22SA
2. A5507SA
3. W21CA
4. W31SA
5. A5509T

Vodafone's best-sellers are:

1. V602SH
2. V603SH
3. 802SH
4. V601T
5. V402SH