What They Say
Counterpoint Research added to the data it already released on the US and Chinese smartphone markets by releasing its data on Europe. It highlighted that the market had a rollercoaster year with supply shortages and Covid issues and in the end saw 8% growth in 2021, not enough to recover from the -14% from 2019 to 2020. Huawei’s 90% decline also had a big impact.
Brands swapped place several times over the year.
Riding the wave of the launch of its first 5G iPhone, Apple started the year on a high with a market leading 34% share. In February, Samsung launched its Galaxy S21 series which, at least initially, sold well, helping Samsung’s sales grow by 24% compared to January and pushing it to the top spot in February 2021. Samsung then suffered significant supply issues starting in May due to COVID-19 related factory shutdowns in Vietnam, which opened the door for Xiaomi to become number one in Europe for the first time, in June 2021 (helped by good growth in Russia, Spain and Italy).
Xiaomi’s leadership was short-lived, though, as Samsung retook the lead in July 2021 off the back of strong A series sales. Samsung then extended its lead with the launch of its popular Galaxy Z foldable smartphones, while Xiaomi was hit badly by component shortages. Samsung continued to lead the market for the next few months, despite the best efforts of Apple, whose iPhone 13 launch stumbled in October 2021. However, a traditionally strong end of the year finally gave Apple the lead in November 2021, a lead which Apple extended to reach it’s highest ever share in Europe in December 2021.
Despite its difficulties in the second half of the year, Xiaomi finished 2021 with its highest annual smartphone sales ever in Europe, a feat shared by other relatively new entrants OPPO (boosted by its merger with OnePlus in June 2021), realme and vivo.
What We Think
The firm also released data on the Indian smartphone market as it followed up the China and US data previously released. (BR)
