In Japan, Smartphones Surpass Feature Phones among Newly Acquired Devices for First Time Ever

1 in 5 Mobile Phone Users in Japan Now Owns a Smartphone

Android Accounts for Majority of Japan's Smartphone Market, Apple Shows Strong Gains

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Apr 24, 2012, 10:00 ET

TOKYO, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the Japan mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending February 2012. The study surveyed more than 4,000 Japanese mobile subscribers and found Sharp to be the top mobile handset manufacturer overall with 23.5 percent market share. Google's Android platform accounted for the majority of the smartphone market at 61.4 percent, followed by Apple with 34.2 percent of the market.

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"Smartphones surpassed feature phones as the most acquired device type in February 2012, signaling an important shift in Japan's mobile market," said Daizo Nishitani, vice president of comScore Japan KK. "The rise in smartphone adoption opens the door to tremendous opportunity for publishers and advertisers to expand their reach and increase engagement with key consumer segments through this channel. Japanese mobile phone users were already highly engaged with their devices, but with the added functionality and higher levels of mobile media consumption we should expect to see significant changes in behavior among the Japanese mobile population in 2012."

Sharp Accounts for 1 in 4 Mobile Devices in Japan

For the three-month average period ending in February, 101.7 million people age 13 and older used mobile devices in Japan (feature phone and smartphone devices). Device manufacturer Sharp ranked as the top OEM with 23.5 percent of Japanese mobile subscribers, followed by Panasonic with 13.8 percent share. Fujitsu captured the #3 ranking in February with 11.8 percent of mobile subscribers, followed by NEC at 9.7 percent and Sony at 7.5 percent to round out the top five.

Apple, which ranked as the 8th largest OEM in Japan with 6.5 percent market share, experienced the strongest gain among device manufacturers increasing 1.6 percentage points since November 2011.

Top Mobile OEMs 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2011 Total Japan Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Nov-11	Feb-12	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Sharp	24.6%	23.5%	-1.1
Panasonic	13.7%	13.8%	0.1
Fujitsu	11.6%	11.8%	0.2
NEC	9.8%	9.7%	-0.1
Sony	7.8%	7.5%	-0.3

Android Accounts for Majority of Japan's Smartphone Market, Apple Sees Strongest Growth

More than 19.3 million people in Japan owned smartphones during the three months ending in February, up 28 percent versus November. Android's share of the smartphone market reached 61.4 percent, while Apple ranked second with 34.2 percent of the smartphone market (up 1.3 percentage points versus November 2011), followed by Microsoft, which accounted for 3.9 percent in February 2012.

*Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2011 Total Japan Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens**
	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	Nov-11	Feb-12	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Android	61.0%	61.4%	0.3
Apple	33.0%	34.2%	1.3
Microsoft	5.7%	3.9%	-1.8
Other	0.3%	0.5%	0.2

*Smartphones are defined as those phones that use the Android, Apple, Microsoft, RIM and Symbian platforms.

Mobile Content Usage

Analysis of selected activities consumers performed on their mobile phones found that 57.6 million users accessed email on their phone, representing more than half of all mobile phone users. Japanese mobile owners were more likely to use an application (55.4 percent) than a mobile browser (52.4 percent), while 45.4 percent sent a text message to another phone during the month. Nearly 1 in 5 mobile users accessed social networking or blog sites on their phone, while slightly less (18.8 percent) watched TV or video.

Selected Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2012 Total Japan Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Total Audience (000)	% of Total Mobile Audience
Total Mobile Audience	101,700	100.0%
Used email	57,616	56.7%
Used application	56,327	55.4%
Used browser	53,302	52.4%
Sent text message	46,184	45.4%
Accessed weather	34,652	34.1%
Accessed search	30,464	30.0%
Accessed news	23,732	23.3%
Accessed social networking site or blog	19,793	19.5%
Accessed maps	19,316	19.0%
Watched TV and/or video on mobile phone	19,157	18.8%

About MobiLens

MobiLens data is derived from an intelligent online survey of a nationally representative sample of mobile subscribers age 13 and older. Data on mobile phone usage refers to a respondent's primary mobile phone and does not include data related to a respondent's secondary device.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

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