At the beginning of November, research showed Japan had overtaken the U.S. as the place where the iPhone was most popular. A massive 37 percent market share was recorded, just beating America’s 36 percent, and the attention being given to Apple’s new smartphones was described by one industry watcher as, “Overwhelming.”
Now, we’ve got a glimpse of just how adored the iPhone is in Japan, as BCN Ranking, a company which tracks purchases in the country, has released its figures for mobile phone sales during the first week of December. It shows the iPhone, in various guises, occupying an astonishing eight of the top ten available positions. The only other devices to get a look in are the Sony Xperia Z1 at number 10, and the Sharp Aquos 302SH at seven.
Looking back over BCN’s numbers for November shows Apple pummeled the competition into submission even more, with only the Xperia Z1 squeaking in at number 10, while the iPhone took up the top nine. You may be wondering how two phones – the iPhone 5S and 5C – can occupy eight or nine positions in a chart, but not only does the data cover sales on all the major networks in Japan, but it’s also split up according to the amount of onboard memory too.
The chart confirms the popularity of the iPhone 5S compared to the iPhone 5C, with the colorful 5C only holding position six and nine in the weekly charts, a drab showing compared to the iPhone 5S. This isn’t a localized trend either, as research carried out at the end of October showed the 5S was nearly twice as popular with buyers around the world than the 5C.
This has had the knock-on effect of the 5S being hard to find, but new data has recently shown the range-topping iPhone model is approaching 100 percent availability in stores across America. As for Japan, with sales as high as these it’s probably going to remain in high demand for a while yet.
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