Apple won 76% of Japan smartphone sales in October

Apple Inc. won 76 percent of Japanese smartphone sales in October after the release of its new iPhone 5S and 5C models, market researcher Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said.

Apple’s share of sales at NTT Docomo Inc. was 61 percent after it began offering the iPhone for the first time, Kantar said in a post on its Twitter account. The account was confirmed by Dominic Sunnebo, an analyst at Kantar Worldpanel Com Tech in London.

Japan’s three wireless carriers all sell iPhones after NTT Docomo, the nation’s largest, ended its holdout against the iPhone as it attempts to regain market share from smaller rivals which already stock the devices. NTT Docomo had 45.7 percent of Japanese mobile subscribers in October compared with 29 percent for KDDI Corp. and 25.3 percent for SoftBank Corp., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

NTT Docomo had resisted offering the iPhone to focus on handsets from Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. and protect its online store, called dmarket, from competition with Apple’s iTunes.

“It is true that iPhone sold well,” said Jun Ootori, a spokesman for NTT Docomo in Tokyo, who declined to comment further because the company doesn’t know details of Kantar’s research.

Apple introduced two new iPhones, including a cheaper version in bright colors and an updated high-end device that Docomo began selling in Japan on Sept. 20.