Japan’s Smartphone Surge: 1 in 4 Mobile Consumers Now Owns a Smartphone

Smartphone Audience Grows 43 Percent since the Beginning of 2012

Nearly Two-Thirds of Japan’s Smartphone Population Uses an Android-Operated Device

TOKYO, JAPAN, August 21, 2012 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the Comscore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the Japan mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending June 2012. The study surveyed more than 4,000 Japanese mobile subscribers and found Sharp to be the top mobile handset manufacturer overall with 22.6 percent market share. Google’s Android platform accounted for the majority of smartphone market at 64.1 percent, followed by Apple with 32.3 percent of the market.

Sharp Leads as Top Device Manufacturer

For the three-month average period ending in June, 102.7 million people age 13 and older used mobile devices in Japan (feature phone and smartphone devices). Device manufacturer Sharp ranked as the top OEM with 22.6 percent of Japanese mobile subscribers, followed by Panasonic with 13.6 percent share. Fujitsu captured the #3 ranking in June with 11.8 percent of mobile subscribers, followed by NEC at 8.9 percent and Sony at 7.9 percent to round out the top five.

Android Accounts for Majority of Japan’s Smartphone Market

More than 24 million people in Japan owned smartphones during the three months ending in June, representing 23.5 percent of the entire mobile population. Smartphone adoption has increased rapidly in 2012, growing 43 percent versus the end of 2011. Android’s share of the smartphone market reached 64.1 percent (up 1.9 percentage points versus March), while Apple ranked second with 32.3 percent of the smartphone market, followed by Microsoft, which accounted for 3.2 percent share in June 2012.

*Smartphones are defined as those phones that use the Android, Apple, Microsoft, RIM and Symbian platforms.

Mobile Content Usage

Analysis of selected activities consumers performed on their mobile phones found that 62.8 million users took photos with their phone, representing 61.1 percent of all mobile phone users. Japanese mobile owners were more likely to use an application (54.7 percent) than a mobile browser (50.8 percent), while 46.9 percent sent a text message to another phone during the month. 1 in 3 mobile users accessed weather information on their phone, while 29.9 percent accessed search during June.

About MobiLens

MobiLens data is derived from an intelligent online survey of a nationally representative sample of mobile subscribers age 13 and older. Data on mobile phone usage refers to a respondent’s primary mobile phone and does not include data related to a respondent’s secondary device.

About Comscore

Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Contact:
Sarah Radwanick
Director, Regional Product Marketing
Comscore, Inc.
+44 (0) 20 7099 1784
worldpress@comscore.com