What it is advisable to know
- Google Pixel cellphone gross sales in Japan rose by over 500% final yr.
- Google was the one main cellphone model to develop its market share on this interval.
- Google moved into third place in Japan for general market share.
New gross sales information lately launched counsel that Google Pixel handsets are quickly turning into some of the standard manufacturers within the Japanese market. The figures present that Google is now difficult Sharp for second place in market share, behind Apple.
The figures from Counterpoint Analysis (through Android Authority) make for some fascinating studying. Throughout the entire of 2023, cell phone gross sales declined by 11.6% in contrast with the yr earlier than. Apparently, iPhone shipments declined by 6.1%, whereas Android gross sales went down by 16.3%.
Regardless of these difficult figures, Google Pixel handsets bucked the pattern, with year-on-year progress of 527%. It was the bestselling cellphone model in each Q2 and Q3 of 2023. Google was the one one of many prime 5 smartphone manufacturers in Japan to see gross sales progress final yr. In Q1 2023, Google turned the second best-selling model general in Japan for the first time.
This meant that Google’s general market share leapt from 1.5% in 2022, to 10.7% by the tip of 2023, narrowly lacking out on second place to Sharp, which, in accordance with the report, “regained its second place available in the market with regular following within the aged section for its reasonably priced smartphones” (virtually 30% of Japan’s inhabitants is 65 or older).
Counterpoint suggests just a few contributory components to clarify Google’s speedy progress available in the market. Firstly, a brand new partnership with Docomo, a Japanese cell phone provider, meant Pixel gadgets have been out there on three networks relatively than two. Moreover, some native manufacturers have been topic to takeover by larger manufacturers or withdrew from the patron market.
Masafumi Inbe, Market Analyst for IDC Japan, stated: “native distributors in Japan are steadily discovering it troublesome to compete with world distributors when it comes to product improvement and competitiveness, together with foldable smartphones and AI smartphones.” The expectation is that this pattern is more likely to proceed as bigger manufacturers with deeper pockets proceed to achieve traction within the Japanese market.
Pixel gross sales are rising in different components of the world, too, albeit not fairly as dramatically as in Japan. We lately reported that Pixel gross sales represented 3% of the market share in North America final quarter, putting Google fourth behind Apple, Samsung, and Motorola when it comes to gross sales. And with the Pixel 8 named “finest smartphone” at MWC lately, there’s loads of room for optimism for the longer term progress of the Pixel model.
