Who’s the number one smartphone maker in the world? Well, if you answered Samsung followed closely by Apple, you’d probably be about right. In Western and Central Europe, you’d be at least half right – Samsung is at the top and has been for a while, but the number two and three might surprise you.
In fact, Counterpoint has released some research showing that the smartphone market in Europe is a little different than you might expect – Samsung’s at the top (unsurprisingly), and Huawei is the close-ish second. However, 3rd is not Apple … it’s Xiaomi.
The leaders in Western and Central Europe haven’t changed much in recent times, in fact it’s been Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi for over twelve months now.
However, the research reveals some interesting findings. For starters, Samsung’s market share continues to grow, from 33% in Q2 2018 through to a massive 40% in Q2 2019.
Huawei has dropped slightly from 23% to 20% – no doubt a result of US trade woes – and Xiaomi has remained somewhat steady, increasing from 9% to 11% year on year.
Counterpoint’s director of research, Peter Richardson, offered these comments on the findings:
Samsung has been the main beneficiary of the drop in Huawei (and Honor) volumes, as it could offer a comparable range of smartphones and fill the portfolio gaps with its recent launches under the A-series.
The refreshed A-series was the star performer for Samsung. Nearly 70% of Samsung’s shipments came from the A-series. Specs like triple camera, in-display fingerprint, excellent build quality, AMOLED display, and more, at competitive prices, helped the A-series capture a significant share in the market. Samsung’s Galaxy A50 was the most successful individual model.
Apart from capturing volumes from Huawei, Samsung also won some share from local brands
What’s happening in Europe is probably hardly unique; Huawei’s trade problems with the US are likely to be harming its sales and thus market share, and at least in Europe, the main beneficiaries are Samsung and Xiaomi.
In Australia, Samsung isn’t at the top for now, with Apple dominating around the 50% mark a couple of months ago. Samsung’s Galaxy S10 and Note 10 lines are likely to erode that lead a little, but perhaps not enough to knock Apple off for a while yet.
Now that Xiaomi is in our local market officially it will be interesting to see if they can gain much traction. I have been using a Mi5s for the last few years and found it to be a great value phone which is not starting to show its age a bit (getting slow and short battery life now) but would for sure buy another one in future.
I am still amazed at how Apple seems to have such a stranglehold over our local market as I don’t see the appeal of them.