Samsung‘s market share in Japan drops to 6 percent

Ranks fourth alongside Fujitsu following Apple, Sony, and Sharp…To be pushed to 5th place soon.

AsiaToday reporter Hong Sung-yool = Galaxy smartphone maker Samsung saw its fourth straight decline in the Japanese smartphone market in the fourth quarter, joining a tie for fourth place with Fujitsu with market share below 7 percent for the first time. Considering its consecutive decline from the fourth quarter of 2012, its ranking will continue to fall down to fifth place.

Samsung Electronics' market share in the Japanese smartphone market accounted for 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year falling 3 percent compared to the previous quarter, U.S research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) said Wednesday.

Samsung's struggle seems to be largely due to its unflavored smartphones in the Japan's phone market. While rival Apple saw significant increase in market share with the launch of iPhone 5S and 5C in the fourth quarter of last year, Samsung saw poor sales in the third quarter when it launched Galaxy Note 3.

Apple dominated the Japanese phone market with a 44.8 percent market share in the fourth quarter. Following Apple, local companies Sony and Sharp ranked second and third with a 15.4 percent and 13.9 percent market share, respectively.

An industry source said, "Japanese users give a great deal of importance to their privacy so they don't want someone else to see their smartphone display. This is why they don't prefer large display that Samsung smartphones have."