iPhone was Japan’s top smartphone in 2011, with sales of 7.26M: Report

A new report has found that Apple’s iPhone was the most purchased smartphone in Japan last year, seeing sales of 7.26 million, while Google’s Android operating system (OS) was the leading smartphone platform.

A MM Research Institute report — translated by Japanese blog Macotakara, via Engadget — found that Apple sold 7.25 million devices to account for 30 percent of smartphone sales, putting it second. Smartphone ownership is still growing in Japan, with comScore reporting they account for one in four devices, and Apple’s haul gave it 17 percent of overall mobile phone sales in the country.

comScore also reported that Android was Japan’s top dog for smartphones, and the OS accounted for 69 percent of sales based on platform. Though Apple and Android’s progress is impressive, Japan’s adoption of smartphones is still in progress and the feature phone sales remain significant.

Overall device shipments hit 42.74 million, up 13.5 percent on 2010, with smartphones sales reaching 24.17 million. That’s 57 percent of all mobiles purchased across the country and it shows that Japan’s smartphone sector continues to grow strongly, with Web-enabled feature phones being replaced by app-centric devices.

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Apple’s iOS and Android dominate the Japanese smartphone market, as they do the global one, and together they account for 99 percent of all smartphones sold in Japan last year, MMRI concludes.

Apple is seeing significant growth in Japan, where the company was recently named the top consumer brand for the first time. As well as the iPhone, the iPad is proving popular, and some Apple fans queued through the night to buy the new iPad when it launched in March.