Google's Nexus line-up of devices seem to have hit the right note with customers. The company's Nexus 4 smartphones have been a rage since its November launch, and now its Nexus 7 tablet has pipped the iPad mini to become Japan's favorite tablet.

Per reports, the Nexus 7 has outpaced the iPad mini as the best-selling tablet in Japan over the holiday season. The revelation is courtesy market research firm BCN, who surveyed 2400 retails stores in Japan in December last year. The two tablets make up 84.5 percent of the market, leaving little share of the pie for other competitors.

According to a report by Japanese business daily Nikkei, the ASUS-made Nexus 7 accounted for 44.4 percent of the market vis-à-vis the iPad mini's 40.1 percent.

"The iPad from Apple Inc. got knocked off its throne as king of the tablets in Japan during the year-end sales season, bowing to the lower-priced Nexus from Google Inc.,"reported Nikkei.

The difference of 4.3 percent between the two tablets is not much and a factor that may have contributed to the Nexus 7's lead is the pricing. The Nexus 7 is priced at 19,800 yen ($221), whereas the iPad mini starts at 28,888 yen ($322).

However, the BCN survey also noted that the shortage of iPad mini's at the Apple store could have contributed to the company's Japanese market share decline.

Additionally, per IDC Japan, tablet sales in Japan were just 3.6 million units in 2012, but the figure is forecasted to increase to 4.9 million in 2013.