iOS Blog: Apple Becomes Top-Selling Phone Manufacturer in Japan After Six-Year Battle
Feb 13, 2013 7:37 am PST by Ben Lovejoy
The iPhone was the best-selling phone in Japan throughout the whole of the last year, the first time the title has ever been taken from a Japanese firm, according to Counterpoint Research's Country Market Share Report (via The Next Web). The number one slot had been held by local firm Sharp for the previous six years.


Apple grabbed 15% of the market, just ahead of local firms Sharp and Fujitsu, at 14% each. Apple had previously taken the number one slot for single quarters as new product launches hit, seen with the 4S launch in 2011, but has never before held its position for an entire year.

Samsung, LG and Huawei all increased their shares, with non-Japanese companies now owning over half the market for the first time. Japan has always been a difficult market for overseas manufacturers, with non-standard networks and an early lead in sophisticated web-enabled feature phones limiting demand for smartphones. Electronista suggests that the shift is in large part due to a carrier battle as Softbank and KDDI challenged market leader NTT Docomo.
Both saw having the iPhone as a strategic advantage over the island nation's largest carrier, NTT Docomo, and promoted the iPhone heavily. Docomo responded with campaigns that emphasized foreign-made Android phones, the first time it had aggressively marketed foreign brands. As a result, the Japanese market had more than 50 percent of the available share split between foreign-owned companies (primarily Apple, Samsung and LG) for the first time.
Counterpoint Research says that the shift in popularity from advanced feature phones to smartphones is likely to be a permanent one.
Japan was once considered to be like a Galapagos Island, an isolated terrain, in terms of mobile technology. It had its own unique digital cellular technology. It was far more advanced than any market in the world and it seemed nearly impossible for any foreign technology company to penetrate the market. Motorola had failed and Nokia had failed. The wave of smartphones has changed the situation now and it looks like the Japanese market is a market that can be transformed after all for better or worse.

Judge cuts Apple award versus Samsung, sets new damages trial

Apple Inc had a major setback in its ongoing patent battle with Samsung Electronics on Friday, as a federal judge slashed a $1.05 billion jury award by more than 40 percent and set a new trial to determine damages.

Apple won the award last year against Samsung in what was the biggest and highest profile trial among a number of legal challenges around the world over mobile patents.

The ruling by Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court Northern District of California in San Jose means the two mobile electronics companies may once again square off in a California court to decide how much of the $450.5 million stricken from the damages associated with 14 Samsung products should stand.

Koh said the jury had incorrectly calculated part of the damages and that a new trial was needed to determine the actual, final dollar amount, which could be less than or more than the original $450.5 million set by the jury.

The iPhone maker convinced the jury that the Korean company, which in 2012 knocked Apple off its perch atop the global smartphone market, had infringed on its iPhone and iPad patents.

On Friday Koh, rejecting Apple's motion for an increase in the jury's damages award, ordered a new trial on damages for the 14 devices, which include the Galaxy SII. The jury's award to Apple for 14 other separate products, totaling almost $599 million, was maintained.

"The court has identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award and cannot reasonably calculate the amount of excess while effectuating the intent of the jury," Koh said in her ruling.

Apple and Samsung account for 1 in 2 mobile phones sold. They also rely on each other for components and business.

Their legal tussle has been viewed as a proxy war between Apple and Google Inc as Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphones and tablets run on Google's Android operating system.

Shares in Apple closed down 2.5 percent at $430.47.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/judge-...205435136.html

The night before the introduction of the Galaxy S4, Apple's Phil Schiller took a number of shots at Samsung and Android in general — and the company has now launched a new promotional campaign defending the iPhone against the competition. As spotted by 9to5Mac, the company launched a new mini-site today, accompanied by an email blast that lays out its intentions right from the headline: "There's iPhone. And then there's everything else." It touts a number of competitive product features, but with no new iPhone hardware immediately on the horizon it appears the company is reacting to the market rather than leading it.

THE IPHONE HAS BEEN LAPPED IN PIXEL DENSITY

In discussing screens, it touts the clarity and beauty of the Retina display, stating that "Only iPhone has the Retina display." While technically true, this can be seen as a matter of branding more than anything else. The 326 ppi pixel density of the iPhone 5 has been lapped by Android devices quite a few times lately — most recently by the 441 ppi display of the Galaxy S4 itself. It's true that sheer pixel density isn't the only factor that plays into what Apple considers a "Retina display" — and to be clear, the iPhone 5 screen remains gorgeous — but given the influx of 1080p smartphone displays Apple's claim that "it remains a feature found only on iPhone and other Apple products" seems more technicality than triumph.

The iPhone 5's camera has been a high-water mark in the smartphone market, but its low-light performance has also faced some pressure from devices like the Lumia 920 and the new HTC One. Apple addresses these concerns as well, pointing to the hardware and software integration in the iPhone that makes it "easy for anyone to take impressive photos in various lighting conditions." The page even lists the top three cameras on Flickr — the iPhone 4S, 4, and 5 — as inferred proof of the iPhone's superiority.



"OTHER MOBILE PLATFORMS HAVE A MYRIAD OF FRAGMENTED STORE OPTIONS."

The page takes its biggest shots, however, at Android itself. Echoing some of Schiller's comments, Apple points out that App Store apps are "all reviewed by Apple to guard against malware" (though as we continue to see, this doesn't keep the occasional unauthorized app from making its way to Apple's servers). "Other mobile platforms have a myriad of fragmented store options, resulting in availability issues, developer frustration, and security risks." The page closes by addressing Apple's customer support prowess — "support from real people" — one area where Apple is still relatively unchallenged.

"PRODUCT AS HERO" TAKES A DEFENSIVE TURN

Taken together with the recent interviews, it's clear that Apple's iPhone marketing philosophy is shifting. While it hasn't shied away from taking shots at competitors in keynotes, its advertising has traditionally focused on positively promoting the strengths of its own products — the "product as hero" philosophy Schiller has espoused in the past. However, the last week has seen the company go after its competitors more openly than ever, and while the email campaign and new page ostensibly tout the iPhone's strengths, their timing and focus clearly mark them as defensive measures. If Apple follows its yearly upgrade cycle, we won't be seeing a new iPhone until September or October of this year. Whether this new campaign is Apple trying to hold its ground until the eventual product refresh or a sign of something more still remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: Cupertino isn't giving up consumer mindshare without a fight.

At long last, T-Mobile will carrying the Apple iPhone starting on April 12th. The fourth place carrier announced the news during a press event in New York on Tuesday. T-Mobile, the fourth largest carrier in the US, is the last national carrier to offer the iPhone, following behind AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint. The iPhone 5 will be compatible with T-Mobile's new LTE network, which was also officially launched on Tuesday, and will also feature HD voice. The carrier is also selling the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 in "select markets"; naturally, the older models will only not run on T-Mobile's LTE network. The iPhone 5, however, will run on LTE, T-Mobile's "4G" HSPA+ network, and older GSM / EDGE networks — it sounds like T-Mobile's iPhone 5 either has slightly different radios than the current GSM version to enable full compatibility with its HSPA+ network.

As part of T-Mobile's new Uncarrier branding and initiative, it will be selling the iPhone 5 slightly differently than its competitors. Instead of pressung customers to sign a two-year agreement, T-Mobile will let iPhone buyers either pay full price for the device at the time of purchase, or spread the cost over 24 months with installment plans. A 16GB iPhone 5 will sell for $99 up front with 24 months of $20 payments — that's $579 over the two years, $70 less than buying an unlocked iPhone 5 from Apple. Similarly, the iPhone 4S will cost $69.99 down plus $20 per month and the iPhone 4 will cost $14.99 plus the $20 monthly charge. Unfortunately, there's no word yet on what happens if you cancel your plan or want to buy a new phone before those 24 months are up.

T-Mobile has long supported unlocked iPhones on its network — it's even recently updated its network in many areas to better support the frequencies used by the iPhone and has been selling iPhone 5-compatible nano-SIM cards since this past October. But now that it is selling the device in its stores and online, T-Mobile won't need to be as aggressive in courting AT&T iPhone users to bring their phones over to its network. The question remains now, since offering the iPhone is no longer the advantage over other carriers that it was in past years, will carriers finally have to compete on pricing and network quality instead of exclusives on popular devices? We sure hope so.