Samsung has started to ship its latest flagship devices, Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, to the world from this month, and it was confirmed that corporate 'Samsung' logo will not be printed on those S6 devices for Japanese market only. Based on the Global Handset Vendor Marketshare for 15 Countries: Q4 2014 report under our Handset Country Share Tracker (HCST) service, Sasmung's handset market share in Japanese market has been declining from its peak Q4 2012, pressured from Apple and a long list of domestic vendors such as Sony, Sharp and Fujitsu.

We estimate that Samsung's decision to remove its 'Samsung' logo from Japanese operators, NTT Docomo and KDDI au, would be to try to enhance its flagging market share in Japan for the past two years, by focusing on the products themselves. Actually Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are not the first products that will not have 'Samsung' logo in Japan, but Samsung tried the similar bids on the Galaxy Note Edge for NTT Docomo and KDDI au, which was publicly launched last year. Also Galaxy S5 for KDDI au was released without 'Samsung' logo.

On a related effort, Samsung didn't publicly launch Galaxy Note 4 in Japan to prioritize the sales of edge version, Galaxy Note Edge. Whether Samsung's special efforts on the important Japanese handset market would be paying off in the long term would remain to be seen.