Japan’s mobile device market will see a “temporary” decline in shipments of 2.1 per cent this year, research firm IDC said.

The study, which covers smartphones, tablets, and data comms products such as routers and dongles, said shipments will drop to 55.1 million units during the year. And smartphones are not exempt from the slump: shipments will fall by 1 per cent to 30 million units.

IDC said that the slowdown will be due to reduced Android device sales, due to the three major carriers focusing promotional efforts on Apple’s iPhone, and slower new subscriber growth.

Interestingly, IDC said that the tablet market “remains very healthy in both the commercial and consumer segments”, growing 18.3 per cent year-on-year to about 9.4 million units.

The company was more optimistic for the total mobile device market in the longer term, forecasting it will reach 62.6 million units in 2018. The growth will be driven by smartphones and tablets, which are expected to reach 36.9 million and 10.2 million units respectively.