TOKYO—NEC won the largest market share of 29.4 percent, exceeding its rival Matsushita Communication Industrial, in the Japanese mobile handset market in the first half of fiscal year 2001 from April to September, according to Multimedia Research Institute, a leading marketing firm in Japan. Mitsubishi Electric kept the third post with 12.1 percent.
Matsushita had been in the leading position for the past several years in the Japanese market. However, with strong popularity with its unique folding-type handset, NEC has been rapidly expanding its market share.
Multimedia Research Institute also reported handset shipping in the fist half of fiscal year 2001 was 24.08 million units, a 5.6-percent increase on the year. The Japanese handset shipping volume has been expanding in the double digits since the research institute started the statistics in fiscal year 1999.
The institute forecasted that handset shipping in the second half of fiscal year 2001 from October 2001 to March 2002 will increase merely 1.1 percent to 25 million units.
