Google Pixel is stealing market share from the iPhone in Japan

Ben Schoon | Sep 28 2023 - 5:49 am PT

Google’s Pixel phones still largely make up a small portion of the smartphone market, but slowly the devices are growing in popularity. A new report details that Google Pixel phones continue to grow in Japan, and have been taking market share from the iPhone.

In the Japanese market, Apple’s iPhones have been dominant for quite some time, holding over 50% of the market much like they do in the US market. But that number is now dropping, as Google Pixel phones are growing in the region.

Bloomberg reports, citing data from Counterpoint Research, that Google Pixel now makes up 12% of the smartphone market in Japan as of Q2 2023, up from a mere 2% in Q2 2021. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone market share in the same time period dropped from 58% down to 46%.

In Q1, it was reported that Japan had become the biggest market for Google Pixel phones, and that was when Pixels only made up 9% of the market.

Notably, Pixel isn’t the only Android brand seeing growth. Sharp saw a jump from 8% to 11%, and Sony went from 5% to 6%. Samsung held its line at 6%, while Oppo actually slipped from 6% to 5%.

Much of the success for Google apparently rests on Pixel A-Series devices, including Pixel 6a and Pixel 7a. Tom Kang, an analyst for Counterpoint, said that the “iPhone is suffering from a weak yen and Google is benefiting from it.”