Impressive growth allows Xiaomi to overtake Apple in Europe
While Samsung and Apple have a clear-cut advantage and plenty of market share here in the U.S., the story is just a tad bit different when you start looking at other markets. Notably in Europe, Q1 2021 has shown some pretty surprising changes in the market share “leaderboard”. According to Canalys, Xiaomi has overtaken Apple in Europe with a 23% market share, while continuing to trail Samsung who owns 35% of the market.
Where we see Apple and Samsung launch flagships time over time, Samsung has also been making a bigger play in the mid-range and budget market, a market where Xiaomi excels. It could only be a matter of time before we see Xiaomi really give Samsung a run for its money in terms of market share, so the next few months for Q2 will be extremely interesting to see.
What’s potentially even more surprising is the rise of Oppo, who has made its way into the top five for two reasons. One, the company saw year-over-year growth of more than 150%, catapulting them into fourth place with a total market share of 4%. Almost bottoming out, we see Huawei still maintaining a 3% market share, but its year-of-year growth has dropped by a whopping 81%.
This comes as no surprise considering the sanctions imposed on Huawei, forcing it to re-tool its software and not being able to provide access to Google’s services. While Huawei hasn’t given up completely just yet, this is just one indication that the outlook is not great for the company’s future. In fact, Huawei was the only phone maker in the top five to see a drop in annual growth at all.