The Japanese smartphone market grew a strong 26.8% in the second quarter, driven by strong demand for the iPhone 5, IDC estimates.
The research firm also calculated that tablet shipments sales increased 92% year-on-year to 1.8 million units during Q2. There is strong demand for both low-price and 4G tablets in the advanced telecom market.
IDC expects the total Japanese mobile device market – including PCs, smartphones, tablets and data communications products – to grow 7.5% to reach 57.1 million units this year.
Unit shipments are on track to continue to grow over the next five years, reaching 65.2 million units in 2017. Most of the growth will come from smartphones and tablets, with shipments due to expand to 37.5 million units and 10.1 million units respectively.
“Looking forward, in the short term, the smartphone market will surge again because NTT DoCoMo, the largest operator in Japan, has decided to launch iPhone5S/5C from Q3 in 2013,” IDC Japan senior market analyst for PC, mobile and client solutions Michito Kimura said.
“Similar to the good performance of the smartphone market, the domestic tablet will continue to show another shipment record in 2013; however, the low-price competition among the vendors and the pile-up of inventory will be a negative factor to slow down the pace of the growth year by year.”