In Japan, iPhone 5s/5c outsold other smartphones by 3:1 during October

iPhone 5 Japan

The new iPhones are on fire in Japan! We already know Apple’s smartphone share in the 127 million people country is bigger than that in the United States as the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c seemingly break sales records in one of the most competitive tech markets on the planet.

Counterpoint Research gave the iPhone a cool 34 percent share of Japan’s smartphone market during the month of October, with Kantar giving Apple a slight lead over Android in Japan.

But according to Kantar’s latest revised data, the iPhone maker has grabbed more than three-quarters of new smartphone sales last month in the Land of the Rising Sun…

Unwired View relayed Kantar’s numbers giving Apple a cool 76 percent share of Japan’s smartphone sales during the month of October. This easily makes Japan the second best iPhone market, after the United States where the Cupertino firm accounts for at least one out of each three smartphones sold.

Speaking of the United States, Kantar reckoned that U.S. sales of the flagship iPhone 5s were forty percent higher versus the iPhone 5c during the month of October.

Interestingly enough, we’re now hearing some armchair estimates about the iPhone 5c possibly outselling Samsung’s Galaxy S4 in India. You’ll remember Apple’s been seen experimenting with various sales tactics in India for quite some time now.

Here’s an even more surprising Kantar metric: on NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s top carrier, the iPhone accounted for 61 percent of new smartphone sales last month. The carrier, along with rival KDI and Softbank, in September started selling Apple’s iconic smartphone for the first time to its sixty million subscribers.

KDDI and SoftBank have been selling the device for years now.

Splash Color 5c Svink Splash

NTT DoCoMo’s Senior Executive Vice President Kazuto Tsubouchi recently confirmed his company would also start offering the iPad Air to its customers by the end of the current fiscal year through next March. It would appear that Apple is finally catching up to demand in terms of both the iPhone 5s and iPad mini with Retina display.

The iPhone 5s used to be hard to come by, but the online Apple Store is now quoting ship times of three to five days as the handset’s availability tops 90 percent in the United States. The unlocked iPhone 5s, for example, is now available from the online Apple Store in all colors, capacity models and across all major carriers.

iOS 7 teaser (iPhone 5s ad 006)

As Apple now allows for walk-in sales, Retina iPad mini models with both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular now appear to be readily available at most Apple Stores in the United States and around the world.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Foxconn has now ramped up iPhone 5s production, with another report by DigiTimes similarly claiming that November orders for the iPad mini with Retina display neared four million units.

Retina iPad minis began arriving to regional U.S. carriers on Monday, starting with U.S. Cellular, Bluegrass Cellular and C-Spire Wireless.