Strategy Analytics released the Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service report, Smartphone Vendor ASP and Revenue Share by Region: Q1 2020. Despite ASP nudging upwards, wholesale revenues in the Western European region declined by -10% YoY on COVID-19 limited demand. Western Europe is the third largest region by value globally.
Apple and Samsung continue to have a duopoly, as the two together account for more than 80% of the overall revenues in the region. Huawei was ranked third with 7% of the wholesale revenue share.
In Western Europe, the most hotly contested battle is just behind third place Huawei which continued to see its share decline due to the ban on Google mobile services globally. Xiaomi, and OnePlus are close behind in the chasing pack and positioning for both volume and value share gains with ramped up marketing and promotion and expanded portfolios.
Boris Metodiev, Associate Director said, “Xiaomi has had success in several W. European markets and notably is seeing strong demand for its Redmi Note 8 and Redmi 8 models. OnePlus with recent growth in Norway, Switzerland, and Netherlands is a rising star. Oppo is currently at modest volume and value share but its recent ranging success with Vodafone will make a huge difference moving forward.”
Neil Mawston noted, “As Europe begins to emerge from the COVID-19 ground stop and with 5G volumes waiting in the wings for 2021, the market will become much more competitive. Legacy brands Motorola, LG and even Sony from the 2010s will continue to struggle as they try to balance a desire for premium tier presence with the reality that their brands have questionable ability to support this aspiration anymore.”
Mawston added “In a commodity market the two key battlegrounds will be marketing and price. These brands lack the scale globally to compete on price (for long) and their marketing cost per unit needed to even make a ripple in the smartphone pond will be huge. Creative marketing to segments of the market that are open to the brand and willing to switch from the big two is needed.”
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