Here is a metric for skeptics who predicted the iPhone would fail in Japan: Apple's handset is now the fifth-best-selling smartphone in the country, with 12.2 percent of the market, according to IDC.

This is the first time Apple has cracked 10 percent in the Japanese market since the iPhone debuted there, so this is something of a milestone. More so when you consider that the company is now in spitting distance of incumbent Kyocera (12.7 percent) and not too far away from market leaders Sharp and Panasonic, which hold about 18.8 percent and 16.6 percent of the market, respectively.

And people said the iPhone would never be big in Japan....

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