GFK claims smartphones now outselling feature phones in Japan

Market researcher thinks smart handsets took 50.1% of the market last week.

Japan has had smart phones for more than a decade, but one of its quirks is that smartphones - those running operating systems like iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian - have been relatively slower to take off.

Well, last week was pretty significant in that regard. According to GFK Japan - as reported on MobileCrunch - between 28 March and 3 April, 50.1% of all mobiles sold in Japan were smartphones.

The market research firm says that Android is what's driving smartphone growth in Japan, although it does not split out the numbers for the various operating systems - or even say how many overall devices are being sold.

It's a big moment, especially for some of the content companies who've made their fortunes from feature phone services in Japan, but are now also launching on smartphones. Social mobile gaming company DeNA is a good example - its MoBaGe community is making the leap this year.