Apple’s iPhone grabs 46% share of Japanese smartphone market

“Apple has claimed nearly half of the Japanese smartphone market in just over a year, Impress says. iPhone sales represent 46.1% of the entire market in 2009 and also claim the top two spots on the Japanese charts by a wide margin, with the older iPhone 3G still leading at 24.6% and the iPhone 3GS close behind at 21.5 percent,” Electronista reports.

“The two have had a devastating effect on domestic smartphone sales between 2008 and 2009,” Electronista reports. “The third-place rival, Sharp’s Windows Mobile-based Advanced W-ZERO3, had its market share cut in half to 14.6 percent this year. Willcom’s 03 also dropped from 8.3 percent to 6.8 percent, and the original W-ZERO3 had its share halved to 4.5 percent.”

Electronista reports, “Every other smartphone competitor had just a small fraction of the market.”

More info and a chart showing the full breakdown of Japanese smartphone market share here.

MacDailyNews Take: Eat crow, Wired.