OnePlus has been getting a lot of backlash for its recent ‘anti-enthusiast’ moves like firstly steadily increasing its prices, then announcing its OPPO fellowship, and putting the final nail in the coffin by ditching OxygenOS for ColorOS. While many have begun to think that the company has finally ‘settled’ and is done for, Counterpoint‘s latest US smartphone market sales figures beg to differ.
The Chinese phone company led by Pete Lau has reportedly managed to record an astonishing 524% of growth in the US, beating the likes of Google whose Pixel series doesn’t seem to have made quite the expected impact. Still, Google did see a spike of 56% YoY in sales, which isn’t all that bad.
OnePlus’s achievement can be owed mostly to its Nord series devices, which continued to see success at T-Mobile and the carrier’s entry into over 2,000 Walmart locations. Do keep in mind though that the company has started from an extremely small base (its US market share in Q4 2021 stood at 2%) and exponential growth isn’t too uncommon at this point.
Motorola is another player with a lot going on for them. The company has sold the largest number of smartphones in the US market in its history, beating its Q4 2019 performance. LG’s demise left some shoes to be filled and Motorola seized the opportunity, recording a market share of 9% in Q4 2021. A lot of the success is driven by the Moto G Pure which was among the top three best-selling devices in the quarter.
But it’s Apple that has the tightest grip on the US market, with over half of smartphones sold in the country last year being an iPhone. The Cupertino-based company closed 2021 with a market share of 57%, driven by both iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 sales, and its YoY growth stood at an impressive 17%.
Seconding Apple in terms of sales is Samsung, with a market share of 24% and growth of 11% in Q4 2021. Several factors held back the OEM’s sales, including shortages of the Galaxy S21 series and the delayed launch of the Galaxy S21 FE. Strong performance of the A series and foldables helped made up for the shortfall, though, and the Galaxy A12 even became the best-selling Android device in 2021.
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