According to Japan's national newspaper called the Sankei Biz, Taiwan's Asus has inched Apple out as the top market share leader in tablets sold in Japan for December 2012. Market researcher BCN stated that Asus won 44.4% of the Japanese market versus 40.1% for Apple. Usually stats are based on quarterly results and so it's an odd statistic to get excited about. That's like cheering for a hockey team who won one out of three periods. Clearly Apple's detractors will grasp at any sign of Apple losing ground as a means of attack. It's just a known fact that Apple's iPad continues to beat the competition and with some production problems out of the way, we should see sales of the iPad bounce back and accelerate in Q1.