A survey of the smartphone operating systems mainly used in Japan found Android leading iPhone by 8.5 percentage points. Among younger people, relatively newer iPhone series were widely used, while Sharp's AQUOS was widely used among people in their 40s and older.

On Sept. 18, Japan's ITmedia reported that market research firm MMD Research a day earlier released an "August 2026 smartphone OS market share survey". The firm surveyed 40,000 men and women aged 18 to 79 in Japan online from Aug. 1 to 6, then analyzed responses from 34,838 people whose primary smartphone model could be identified. It applied weighting based on population composition.

The share of primary smartphones was 54.1 percent for Android and 45.6 percent for iPhone. The figures reflect usage based on the survey and do not mean sales or shipment market share over the same period.

By carrier brand, the highest iPhone share was 60.5 percent for NTT Docomo's online plan ahamo. LINEMO followed at 59.4 percent, and SoftBank was 59.1 percent. For Android, Rakuten Mobile had the highest share at 62.6 percent, followed by Docomo at 60.2 percent and au at 52.9 percent.

Among iPhone users, the iPhone 16 was the most common at 21.8 percent. The iPhone 17 followed at 17.3 percent, and the iPhone 15 was 12.4 percent. Among Android users, AQUOS ranked first at 25.9 percent, followed by Google Pixel at 17.6 percent and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy at 14.1 percent.

Differences by age group were also clear. The most-used series were the iPhone 17 among people aged 18 to 20, the iPhone 16 among those in their 30s, and AQUOS among those in their 40s to 70s.

Among respondents who had decided on their next purchase, 66.5 percent of iPhone users chose the iPhone 17. Android users picked AQUOS at 26.3 percent, followed by Google Pixel at 21.4 percent and Xperia at 17.5 percent.