The popularity of the iPhone 12 in Japan has led to a 5G boom in the country, with demand expected to double again in 2021.
iPhone 12 with 5G dominating Japanese smartphone sales
In late 2020, Apple introduced four iPhone 12 models with support for sub-6GHz 5G internationally. Since they released, Japan has seen a huge increase in 5G usage thanks to the iPhone's popularity.
According to data from MM Research Institute reported by TechNews, the iPhone is driving a 5G boom in Japan as smartphone demand reaches a new record high. Domestic smartphone shipments in Japan increased by 16.9% year-over-year to 32.757 million units, which is higher than the 2017 record of 32.58 million units.
The report says that thanks to Apple's four 5G iPhone 12 models, Japan saw 11 million 5G smartphones shipped in 2020. That is a 4,000% increase from the 269,000 5G smartphones shipped in 2019. The market share of 5G smartphones is 33.6% in Japan, thanks to the dramatic adoption rate.
Apple shipped half of the smartphones sold in Japan in 2020 and is the number one company in the Japanese smartphone market according to this data. The popularity of these devices continues into 2021, and 5G adoption is expected to double again by March 2022.
Apple shipped the iPhone 12 with 5G internationally but didn't support the faster mmWave band anywhere outside of the United States. This is expected to change with the "iPhone 13," which could cause high international demand for those seeking the faster data speeds.
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