Samsung Electronics Co.'s share in the Japanese smartphone market nearly tripled in the third quarter from a year earlier thanks to robust sales of new models, industry data showed Monday.

The Korean tech giant shipped about 500,000 smartphones in Japan in the July-September period to take up 6.7 percent of the country's smartphone market, according to the data compiled by Strategy Analytics. 

The third-quarter figure was sharply up from 2.4 percent from a year ago, while slipping from the second quarter's 9.8 percent, a six-year high.

Samsung was well behind its US rival Apple's share of 63 percent, while coming ahead of two Japanese brands, Sharp and Sony, which took third and fourth, respectively, the market research firm said.       

In March, the firm opened its new flagship store for Galaxy smartphones in downtown Tokyo ahead of its launch of its new Galaxy S10 flagship model. In October, Samsung released Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Fold, its first foldable device, to expand its presence in the market.

Samsung, an Olympic Partner in wireless communications equipment, has been exploring ways to expand its foothold in the Japanese market as Japanese mobile carriers are preparing to power broadscale 5G networks during the international sporting event. (Yonhap)