It's not a market American companies traditionally dominate, but Apple is continuing to enjoy success in Japan with iPhone sales surging according to the latest statistics released by Bloomberg's Businessweek.

The website claims iPhone sales have doubled within the last 12 months based upon stats gathered by MM Research Institutes, with Apple shifting 1.69 million handsets across the period.

That accounts for 72 percent of all smartphone sales throughout the year, which in total hit 2.3 million.

Bigger bite of the Apple

Such figures represent something of a major step up for Apple in Japan, with a previous study carried out by Impress R&D back in December having put iPhone on a more conservative market share figure of 46 percent.

What's equally encouraging for Apple is how its main rivals appear to be falling away.

The second biggest player in Japan is HTC, but it's a fair distance back according to MM's figures, accounting for 11 percent of last year's market.

Toshiba, in third, took 6.8 percent of sales, while Apple's more traditional competitor Google mopped up 5.6 percent with Android handsets.

Apple can already boast a fairly major presence in Japan, its Q2 2010 earnings report revealing it picked up $783 million from Mac computer sales in the first quarter of 2010.

Apple COO Tim Cook also claimed iPhone sales have grown 183 percent year on year within the last quarter.

[source: AppleInsider]