TOKYO-Sharp, a major consumer electronics maker, assumed the third position, after NEC and Matsushita Communications Industrial, in the Japanese mobile handset market in the second quarter, according to statistics compiled by Gartner Japan.
Sharp is the pioneer of picture telephones. It has been providing a variety of picture phones to J-Phone since the carrier launched its picture service called Sha-mail. On 1 June, Sharp launched a picture phone for NTT DoCoMo.
Targeting both carriers, Sharp has provided 1.48 million handsets in the period, beating Sony Ericsson and Sanyo Electric. In the Japanese market, NEC occupied the largest 16.5-percent market share, followed by Matsushita Communications’ 15.3-percent share.
According to Gartner, the total sales units for quarter two dropped by 9.9 percent on the year to 9.96 million units.
