HTC surpassed Samsung for fifth place in the Japanese smartphone market during the first quarter of this year, according to market research firm IDC Japan on Wednesday.

IDC’s report found that HTC managed to secure a 6.6 percent share of the Japanese smartphone market in Q1 2013. But rather than the popular HTC One, it appears that the J Butterfly has been responsible for much of HTC’s success in Japan.

The handset was released in Japan last December and has managed excellent sales since. The handset made it into BCN Inc’s top 10 mobile devices ranking during its launch period, but unfortunately the handset suffered production shortages, just like the One, which saw the device fall out of favour. However the J Butterfly returned to the top 10 list once the shortages were sorted out, and has managed to maintain its position since mid-April.

Interestingly, Samsung held fifth place in the fourth quarter of 2012 with a 8.8 percent share of the market, which means that Samsung’s market share has to have slipped rather significantly in the space of just three months to fall behind HTC.

Apple, on the other hand, easily retained its top spot with a 39.6 percentage share of the smartphone market in Q1 2013. Second, third, and fourth places were made up by Japanese firms Sharp (14.6 percent), Sony (13.3 percent) and Fujitsu (8.3 percent) respectively. Overall the Japanese smartphone market grew by 4 percent from the previous year to a total of 6.81 million units sold.

This is yet another positive sign for HTC, following on from the company’s strong profits and decent sales figures lately, which hopefully means that the company is finally moving clear of its rough patch. With a decent line-up of products potentially heading out later in the year, the HTC One Mini and Butterfly S could be particularly strong, HTC looks set to capitalize on its recent success.