SlashGear

I continue to be impressed that the iPhone commands so much of the smartphone market around the world with limited carriers in many countries and with only two models to choose from, assuming your carrier still has the iPhone 3GS. At the same time, there are more Android phones on the market than I can list from memory. It’s no surprise with the huge number of Android devices that the Android OS is taking over many markets around the world.

The latest market to be taken over by Android smartphone is Japan. Japanese research firm MM Research Institute Ltd reports that smartphone running Android is now 57% of the Japanese smartphone market. Those numbers are for the fiscal year ending March 31. The previous year the Android OS held 11% of the market with 250,000 units shipped in Japan. This year Android smartphones shipped 4.91 million units.

Android can claim the overall smartphone market lead in Japan, but it can’t beat Apple in one important metric. Apple is by far the single most popular smartphone maker in Japan. It holds 38% of the smartphone market with 3.23 million iPhone units shipped compared to 1.69 million shipped the previous year.

[via Android Community]