Market research firm Gfk Japan has published their latest cellphone market data that puts 32GB iPhone 3GS as the top selling phone in Japan, beating Japan’s own phone manufacturers. In the top ten list there is only one other non-Japanese phone, which is 16GB version of the same iPhone 3GS. There are four Sharp phones in top ten list, and one phone each from Panasonic, NEC, Sony Ericsson and Casio. It rarely happens that a non-Japanese cellphone maker reach the top ten list in Japan and it’s almost impossible to top the list. This shows that iPhone 3GS launch has been phenomenal in Japan.

In other iPhone related news, an analyst group Strand Consult has published a study that says “not one iPhone carrier has seen a financial or market share boost since adding it to their rosters.” The study says the drop in profit is because of the heavy subsidies needed for the iPhone. This study looks more like a publicity stunt than actual fact-finding mission. If the group had just looked at financial results of AT&T for past two years, they would have realized how wrong they were.

After AT&T got the iPhone their data revenue has quadrupled, number of new subscriptions every quarter has more than doubled (compared to 2007) and the churn rate has constantly gone down. In fact iPhone users are the highest paying customers and as a result of which monthly revenue per customer has also increased. Most of the carriers are losing money in their other businesses, for example AT&T is losing money in their landline business, while there cellular business has been growing for past two years.

Similar results are also reported from other parts of the world like UK and Japan. The two carriers that the study uses as example of decreasing market share and average revenue per person, might be facing these problems because of their own fault rather than as a result of having iPhone on their network.
[Via Macnn]