Android Handsets Surpass IPhone in Japan Smartphone Market Share

Handsets running Google Inc.’s Android software captured 57 percent of Japan’s smartphone market last fiscal year, cutting the share of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, MM Research Institute Ltd. said.

Shipments of Android phones rose to 4.91 million units in the year ended March 31, Tokyo-based MM Research said in a statement today. That compares with sales of 250,000 units, or 11 percent of the market, a year earlier when devices running Google’s software started to be widely available in Japan.