Japan’s wireless industry is unique in that their carriers typically charge more for smartphones than any other country, but they also charge the least for basic phones, like flip phones. This has caused a pretty strange event in Japan where flip phones have actually grown in shipments for the first time in seven years. Inversely, that has caused smartphone shipments to decline as more and more people revert back to internet-enabled flip phones to save money.
Flip phones grew 5.7% in 2014, while smartphones shrunk about 5.3%. Smartphones shipments still hit about 27 million phones while flip phones only made up 10 million units, so if we’re looking at a pure volume standpoint, smartphones don’t have anything to worry about it. However, for manufacturers, it’s a tough market to penetrate if you’re trying to sell the latest and greatest touchscreen device. Companies like Panasonic have already left the smartphone market in Japan despite being a native Japanese company.
This news, coupled with the fact that smartphone penetration in Japan is sitting at around 98%, means there’s very, very little room for growth in Japan’s smartphone market, especially considering how long newer smartphones are capable of lasting. We’re past the point of absolutely needing to replace a phone after two years, so customers upgrade devices less often. That’s great news for consumers, but it’s a tough battle for manufacturers.
source: Reuters
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