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Sharp's Japanese smartphone market share has taken a rather unpleasant turn in 2025. After climbing to 9% in 2024 and briefly looking as though it might be staging a proper comeback, Sharp has slipped to fourth place among smartphone manufacturers – or third among Android manufacturers.

And, yes,...

Sharp has come up with a rather clever way of dealing with one of the less glamorous problems created by our increasingly screen-filled lives: what to do with the screen when it isn't being used.

The company's new Texture Display is designed to disappear into its surroundings when switched off. Instead...

In 2024, Sharp continue their... ahem, unrivalled Android smartphone market share. It's fairly rivalled, actually – starting in 2023, Google and their Pixel series have been a close second.

Of course, the overall smartphone market is still dominated by Apple's iPhones and there's no end to this in...

It's been quite a while since I had the time to post about the Japanese smartphone market share, so I'll catch up now. Here goes:

In 2023, the smartphone market in Japan was again and not surprisingly dominated by Apple with a 51.9% market share (up from 48.4% in 2022), leaving 48.1% to Android devices...

IDC Japan announced the 2022 market share results for the Japanese smartphone market.

While there is a 8.1% (34.3 million units) decrease in the total number of smartphones sold in 2022 versus 2021, the market shares remain almost the same.

Apple is the undisputed leader with a 48.4% share. This was...

Working in conjunction with the University of Tokyo, Sharp Display Technology Co., Ltd. have succeeded in developing a novel type of light-emission technology that promises high-efficiency energy-saving displays that are more environmentally friendly due to the absence of cadmium.

The technology involves...

Sharp is Japan's best-selling Android smartphone brand in 2021. This is the fifth consecutive year the local manufacturer has managed to retain its leadership.

Measured in the 4th quarter of 2021, the share of smartphones by manufacturer in Japan is as follows:

#1. Apple with 52.1%

#2. Sharp with...

For the fourth consecutive year, Sharp rules the Android smartphones market in Japan. Japanese market analysts BNC Retail announced their smartphone market analysis on 25 January and the data is solid:

Sharp has sold 24.4% of all Android smartphones in Japan, while the second place goes to Samsung...

Japanese market analysts BNC Retail have announced their smartphone market analysis and, little wonder, Sharp is Japan's No. 1 developer and seller of Android smartphones for the third consecutive year.

The market share held by Aquos phone is 26.2% – which is better than last year's 23.7%.

Ranking...

The Aquos R3, Sharp's last's year's flagship smartphone, has won the prestigious iF Design Award for 2020, Product category. The design award was also, surprisingly, given to the Kid's Mobile SH-03M released by Docomo in 2019.

Two more products by Sharp have received the iF Design Award in the same...

Effective as of 1st September 2019, AU phones can now also be SIM-unlocked under the new less restrictive policy. If you have a contract phone, you can remove the SIM lock after 100 days have elapsed since purchase, or if you have paid your device in full.

If you are a contracted subscriber, that is,...

SoftBank and its subsidiary Y!Mobile have also complied with the japanese Ministry of Telecommunications strong recommendation to also offer anyone the option to remove the SIM lock on second-hand devices. This comes a full six months after Docomo allowed it. AU are still lingering behind.

From now...

Just a year after they officially began mass-producing OLED displays for smartphones, Sharp have now announced that they will discontinue them. The Japanese manufacturer has realised that it cannot compete with Korean and Chinese display makers.

The OLED market is wholly dominated by Samsung with an...

Effective from 20 February 2019 is a new policy by the largest Japanese carrier that allows removing the SIM lock on second-hand smartphones.

This means you can now safely buy a phone from an auction, a second-hand dealer, or receive it as a gift from someone, and not worry about how you are going...

Japan market analyst BCN Retail has just published its Android-based smarphone market share report for 2018 and guess what – Sharp hold the number one position even more stably than in 2017, when they had 19.1%, followed closely by Sony with 17.9% and Huawei with 15.8%.

The 2018 results are as follows:...