Japan - Mobile Market - Overview, Statistics and Forecasts

Synopsis

Into 2012 there were over 127 million mobile subscribers in Japan with around 98% of these using 3G services. The overall Japanese mobile market remains in a dynamic period of activity, especially given the evident popularity of 3G services, now in its 10th year of operation. NTT DoCoMo still has a dominant market share, benefitting from its monopoly status years before. However, in close pursuit are KDDI, Softbank and smaller operator eMobile. While fighting for a bigger share in a saturated market, the operators continue to put more weight behind their data services to make up for declining revenue from phone calls. Softbank initially took advantage of its position as the sole carrier for the iPhone and the iPad in Japan. However, Android-based smartphones offered by the remaining operators have taken the market share lead.

This report provides an overview of Japanese mobile technologies and mobile data and content services. Providing extensive market, technology and operator based statistics, forecasting on mobile subscribers is also provided up to 2017.

Key Developments:

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ (MIC) review of mobile bandwidth allocations in the 2000MHz band by 2020, as it seeks to cater for the anticipated explosion in demand for mobile and wireless data traffic; Wi-Fi investments to cater for mobile offload strategies; launch by Softbank of its ‘Ultra Speed’ HSPA+ service; launch of NTT DoCoMo’s LTE network, branded ‘Xi’ which is to cover 70% of the population by March 2015; LTE-Advanced license granted to NTT DoCoMo for field experiments; establishment of the Softbank affiliate Wireless City Planning to take over next-generation PHS service operations from Willcom; first sales of unlocked handsets; SMS interconnection between mobile operators; lead up to the launch of a mobile multimedia broadcasting network; Softbank loses iPhone exclusivity

Companies covered in this report include:

NTT DoCoMo; KDDI; Softbank; eMobile; Willcom; Wireless City Planning; Google; Apple

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Mobile communications market
  • 2.1 Background
  • 2.2 Mobile statistics
    • 2.2.1 Mobile subscribers 1995-2012
    • 2.2.2 Mobile subscribers by operator
  • 2.3 Market status 2012
  • 2.4 Differentiation efforts
• 3. Mobile technologies
  • 3.1 PDC
  • 3.2 CDMA
  • 3.3 PHS
  • 3.4 Third Generation (3G) mobile
  • 3.5 LTE (Long-Term Evolution)/4G
  • 3.6 LTE-Advanced
• 4. Mobile handset market
  • 4.1 Unlocked handsets
  • 4.2 iPhone
  • 4.3 Android
  • 4.4 iPads
  • 4.5 E-Readers
  • 4.6 Tablets
• 5. Major mobile operators
  • 5.1 Overview
  • 5.2 Statistics
  • 5.3 Forecast: Mobile subscribers 2011-2017
    • 5.3.1 Forecast: Total mobile subscribers 2011-2017
  • 5.4 Forecasting methodology
• 6. Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO)
• 7. Mobile services
  • 7.1 Market background
  • 7.2 Prepaid cards
  • 7.3 SMS
  • 7.4 Wi-Fi
  • 7.5 Mobile Internet
    • 7.5.1 NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode
• 8. Mobile content
  • 8.1 Global Positioning System (GPS)
  • 8.2 Mobile payment
  • 8.3 Mobile banking
  • 8.4 Mobile contactless payment (NFC)
    • 8.4.1 NTT DoCoMo
    • 8.4.2 Softbank
    • 8.4.3 KDDI
  • 8.5 Mobile advertising
  • 8.6 Mobile TV and radio
  • 8.7 Mobile ringtone and music downloads
  • 8.8 Mobile social gaming
• 9. Mobile applications
  • 9.1 Earthquake alerts
  • 9.2 Personal trainer
  • 9.3 QR code readers
  • 9.4 Environmental sensors
• 10. Related reports

• Table 1 – Mobile subscriber, annual change and penetration rate – 1995 - 2013
• Table 2 – Market share of mobile operators in Japan – February 2012
• Table 3 – Mobile subscribers by system – February 2012
• Table 4 – Carrier share of mobile telephone and PHS market – 2004 - 2011
• Table 5 – cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1x and WCDMA subscribers – 1999 - 2011
• Table 6 – PHS subscribers by carrier – 2004 – 2012
• Table 7 – PHS subscribers – 1995 – 2012
• Table 8 – 3G mobile subscribers by operator – February 2012
• Table 9 – Japan 3G subscribers – 2004 – 2013
• Table 10 – Japan LTE subscribers – 2010 - 2013
• Table 11 – NTT DoCoMo LTE roadmap – 2011 – 2013; 2015
• Table 12 – Number of handsets sold – 2006 - 2010
• Table 13 – Google and Apple Smartphone platform audience in Japan – 2010 - 2011
• Table 14 – Mobile subscribers by operator and technology – February 2012
• Table 15 – Mobile subscribers, ARPU and churn by operator – 2004 - 2011
• Table 16 – Net addition share by operator – 2006 - 2011
• Table 17 – Forecast mobile subscribers and penetration lower band forecast – 2011 - 2013; 2017
• Table 18 – Forecast mobile subscribers and penetration higher band forecast – 2011 - 2013; 2017
• Table 19 – MVNO subscribers – 2009 - 2010
• Table 20 – Prepaid mobile subscribers – December 2010
• Table 21 – Mobile Internet subscribers, services and technology by provider – February 2012
• Table 22 Mobile Internet subscribers by providers – 2004 - 2011
• Table 23 – Mobile Internet subscribers – 2000 – 2012

• Chart 1 – Japan mobile subscriber growth and population penetration – 1995 - 2013
• Chart 2 – Japan 2G, 3G and LTE growth – 2000 - 2013

• Exhibit 1 – Long-term evolution (LTE) roadmap in Japan – 2008 - 2012