According to Serkan Toto of CrunchGear, Apple took a huge bite out of the notebook market in Japan in May, mostly thanks to the iPad:
The iPhone turned out to be a mega-hit in Japan’s competitive cell phone market, and the iPad is poised to replicate this success. Tokyo-based market research firm BCN [JP] today said Apple’s share of the domestic notebook market more than tripled in May (on a month-to-month basis) to reach 11.5% – thanks to the iPad.
The firm, which collected POS data from 2,364 Japanese electronics retailers, says Apple’s share in that segment stood at just 3.5% in April. But the iPad (launched in Japan on May 28), helped Apple to eclipse Sony, which – at 9.3% – fell down to No. 5 in the notebook sales ranking (at least for the time being).
The Japanese have not found the means to innovate in the notebook market, largely copying the success of other computer manufacturers. This might seem odd to many folks outside of Japan. However, from the perspective of someone having lived in Japan for almost twenty years now, I find it not at all surprising to see Japan unable to revolutionize the computing industry like they did consumer electronics in the 80′s and 90′s.
Bottom line about computing in Japan: the Japanese like small, portable gadgets since they are always on the go, whether on foot, bike, bus or train – public transportation is the single-most popular means of daily transportation to/from work. The industry has mostly focused on adding hordes of useless functionality to their keitai (mobile phones) rather than creating revolutionary devices like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Until the Japanese electronics industry can figure out how to do what Apple is doing, possibly using Android as the foundation for such devices, I believe the companies will continue to flounder.
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