The European smartphone market grew 8% last year, which while is a good enough figure, is only a partial recovery from the 14% dip caused by the pandemic in 2020.
A major trend carried over from 2020 to 2021 was intense vendor competition that led to the top spot being shuffled four times. Some brands did enjoy their best year in terms of sales in the continent though.
Counterpoint Research’s Associate Director, Jan Stryjak said, “a major factor to consider is the decline of Huawei. Huawei’s sales dropped by almost 90% annually in Europe in 2021, leaving it on less than 1% market share and in 8th position (down from 4th in 2020). But while Huawei had another year to forget in Europe, other vendors, especially some of the Chinese challengers, certainly had a year to celebrate.”
Apple started 2021 with a record 34% market share, riding on the wave of its first 5G iPhone (iPhone 12 series), but closed it with an average share of 26%. In 2020, this stood at 22%.
Samsung launched its Galaxy S21 series in February, which helped propelled the Korean company’s sales by 24% compared to January, pushing it to the top spot. But soon after, the company had to deal with significant supply issues due to COVID-19 related factory shutdowns in Vietnam.
This led to Xiaomi taking the lead in Europe for the first time in June 2021, driven by great growth in Russia, Spain, and Italy. The company’s leadership was short-lived, though, as Samsung once again grabbed the top spot with the launch of its Galaxy Z foldable smartphones. Xiaomi was badly hit by component shortages during this time.
Samsung continued with its lead for the next few months but a traditionally strong year-end gave Apple the lead in November 2021, allowing the Cupertino-based tech giant to reach its highest ever market share in Europe in the Christmas month.
Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus, realme, and vivo all have big plans for Europe in 2022, with some impressive flagship launches soon. Samsung will be competing against them with its S22 series, hoping that it performs better than the S21 and S20. Motorola, Nokia, and HONOR are also eyeing a chunk of the market share, with all of them seeing resurgencies lately.
All in all, the European smartphone market could see an even more intense competition this year compared to the last.
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