Pro iPhone users are upgrading at a much faster pace than those with base models, and a new report from Counterpoint explains why. On average, Pro model owners replace their iPhones every 2.75 years, while non-Pro users hold onto their devices for 3.15 years. The difference may not seem huge at first, but in a premium smartphone market where Apple is pushing higher-priced models, it signals a major shift.

What’s driving the trend?

The trend is driven by a mindset shift among iPhone users. Many Pro owners see themselves as innovators or early adopters, with 45 percent identifying as the first to embrace new technology. An additional 25 percent consider themselves opinion leaders who influence purchasing decisions. This self-perception fuels a sense of urgency to upgrade, often within two to three years of a phone’s launch. At the same time, base model users are increasingly moving toward the Pro lineup, drawn by exclusive features like advanced cameras, ProMotion displays, and premium materials.

Shorter upgrade cycles are having a ripple effect on the secondary market. As more Pro models enter resale channels, the availability of refurbished units is expected to improve, especially in regions like India and Southeast Asia, where demand for used iPhones is high. Supply constraints have made it difficult for many buyers to get their hands on refurbished Pro models, but this shift could ease some of those challenges.

The timing of this trend is particularly interesting with the iPhone SE 4 launch expected tonight. Apple’s most affordable iPhone has long catered to price-conscious buyers, but the upcoming model is rumored to bring a significant design overhaul, likely resembling the iPhone 14 with Face ID and an OLED display. If Apple keeps its pricing aggressive, the SE 4 could become the perfect entry point for first-time iPhone buyers and switchers coming from Android.

The report also highlights Apple’s growing success in pulling users away from Android. Nearly half of the surveyed iPhone owners previously used Android devices, with Samsung and Google being the biggest brands affected. As more premium Android users switch to iPhones, companies like Samsung, OnePlus, and Vivo are doubling down on AI-powered features and high-end specifications to stay competitive.

Recent data from CIRP (via AppleInsider) reinforces the trend of shorter upgrade cycles. In Q4 2024, 36 percent of iPhone users upgraded within two years, up from 31 percent the year before. Carrier trade-in deals and installment plans have made upgrading more accessible, while Apple’s strategy of introducing exclusive features on newer models is adding pressure to upgrade sooner.

Despite iPhones remaining functional for four to five years, Apple continues to push innovations that create a sense of urgency among its most dedicated users. Whether this trend will hold depends on future product launches, but for now, Pro users are upgrading at a faster rate, and Apple is shaping the market to keep that momentum going.

In related news, iPhone SE 4 cases have appeared on Alibaba, reinforcing the expected design. Feel free to check them out.

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The competition in the global smartphone market continues at full speed. However, brands are expanding their product ecosystems with different devices to get ahead in this race and attract more users. For example, today, Apple, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, and many other manufacturers are producing their own smartwatches. Moreover, these secondary products alone are generating a market worth billions of dollars. Recently, Counterpoint released a new report monitoring the global smartwatch market, indicating that shipments increased by 11% year-over-year after declining for two successive quarters.

Indian Smartwatch Brands Make Big Strides in Q2 2023

When looking at Counterpoint‘s report, the first thing that stands out is the increase in global smartwatch shipments. According to the data, sales increased by 11% year-over-year in Q2 2023, after declining in both Q4 2022 and Q1 2023. Notably, the primary contributor to this growth is India. Smartwatch sales in the region increased by 12% compared to the same period last year, reaching a 34% market share. Meanwhile, there is a slight decline in sales in North America, China, and the rest of the world. So, which brands managed to dominate sales, Apple, Huawei, or Samsung?

When we first look at the report, we see that Apple has once again maintained its position at the top, but there is a significant decline. The company’s market share was 27% in Q2 2022, but it fell by five points to 22% in Q2 2023. This decline pushed its shipments to below 8 million units for the first time in three years. Considering that much of the growth is happening in India, this situation is quite normal because budget-friendly models are more popular in the country.

Huawei emerged as the best-performing brand this quarter, particularly seeing a significant increase in market share in China. Due to this growth, the company’s global market share rose by 3%, reaching 10%. The expansion of Huawei’s smartwatch business is fueled by the popularity of its new Watch GT 3 Pro series. The company is also entering new markets like Europe and North America, further boosting its global smartwatch market share.

Samsung witnessed a 19% decline in Q2 2023. The company managed to boost shipments in the Chinese and Indian markets. However, its performance in North America and Europe, its pivotal markets, recorded 24% and 13% declines, respectively. The decline in Samsung’s shipments is attributed to the increasing competition from other brands, such as Apple and Huawei. Samsung is also facing challenges in the supply chain, which is affecting its ability to meet demand.

Indian brands Noise and Fire-Boltt emerged as major contenders, boasting 86% and 70% YoY growth, resFire-Boltt also made strides in expanding its market share by capitalizing on cost-effective smartwatches. The brand’s smartwatches are available in a variety of colors and designs, making them appealing to a wide range of consumers. Fire-Boltt also made strides in expanding its market share by capitalizing on cost-effective smartwatches. The brand’s smartwatches are available in a variety of colors and designs, making them appealing to a wide range of consumers.

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In its upcoming webinar, Counterpoint Research will host keynote speakers from TECNO, MediaTek, and an Editor-At-Large of Forbes Magazine to discuss the forces and opportunities influencing current smartphone trends. Together, they will present global and continental perspectives on the continuous evolution of cutting-edge smartphone technology.

Entitled “The Push Towards Premium: Changing Smartphone Preferences and the Technologies Behind Them”, the webinar will be hosted by Peter Richardson, vice president of Counterpoint Research, and feature keynote addresses from TECNO, a rising player in the high-end market. TECNO’s recent offerings such as the Tecno Phantom X2 have been praised by both users and reviewers alike, and the brand is well known for its premium yet value-for-money smartphones.

TECNO has expanded its portfolio into more premium products in response to the rising demand for premium smartphones. Its recent flagship—the Phantom X2—ships with the Dimensity 9000 5G chip and features great cameras that can capture impressive night shots.

The webinar will also feature the major chipset supplier MediaTek, and Forbes Magazine, a globally known media house. As well as the expansion of flagship technology, the webinar will discuss the influences and technological underpinnings of the smartphone trends for 2023-2024.

A webinar like this is timely as the technological demands of smartphone manufacturers and users are growing rapidly and the emerging market is becoming a major driving force for premium growth.  During the webinar, a live and open panel discussion and Q&A session will also be arranged to cover the most pressing questions. It will be broadcasted on Tuesday, November 22 at 12 pm London. Interested readers can register by following the link embedded here.

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According to a recent Counterpoint Research, the Samsung Galaxy A52s, which launched back in August 2021 was the most popular 5G Android smartphone in February 2021.

In February 2022, the four most selling 5G Android smartphones were all by Samsung (Via TechGoing). According to Counterpoint Research’s top 10 list of global top 10 best-selling 5G Android smartphones, the Galaxy A52s sold the most with 2.90% market share, followed by the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G, which managed to secure 2.87% of the 5G Android market share.

The Galaxy S21 Founders Edition captured 2.63% of the market, and the Galaxy A32 5G occupied 2.09% of the 5G Android market in February. Trailing the South Korean, OPPO Reno7 5G became the top-selling 5G smartphone from a Chinese vendor with 1.92% of total 5G Android phone sales in February.

Honor is recently on the rise to fill the void left by Huawei after the US sanctions shipped a sizable amount of Honor 60 smartphones in February, accounting for 1.81% of the global 5G Android smartphone sales. The Vivo S12, the Redmi K40, and the Honor X30 occupied the seventh, eighth, and ninth positions in the top 10 rankings with 1.58%, 1.57%, and 1.51% market share, respectively.

The sales of the Chinese models are mainly driven by the domestic market where 5G has now become standard with a penetration rate of 83% as of February 2022.

In total, the top 10  best-selling 5G Android smartphones accounted for 20% of 5G Android smartphone sales in February. And Android smartphones made up 67% of global 5G smartphone sales in February 2022. Samsung is expected to remain dominant in the coming months as the brand has recently launched the new Galaxy A series which will likely be replacing the previous Gen A-series devices on the list.

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Counterpoint Research has released a report on the Indian smart TV market for 2021. According to the report, the market grew more than the year-earlier and registered its highest-ever shipments. More consumers started preferring large-screen televisions. In fact, they accounted for almost half of the shipments.

Counterpoint reports that the TV shipments in India grew by 24% YoY and 48% YoY in 2021 and Q4 2021 respectively. These numbers stood at 55% YoY and 65% YoY for smart TVs. As a result of the aforementioned growth, the market share of smart televisions increased to 84% from 67%.

The growth of the smart TV category was supported by demand for home entertainment during lockdowns, newer launches at affordable price tags, growth of newcomers, discounts, and availability of premium features at attractive prices.

As mentioned earlier, the market share of large-screen televisions (above 40-inch) increased to 42% last year compared to just 31% in 2020. At the same time, the online channel continued to show growth due to brands’ partnerships with eCommerce platforms and launching their own websites. Anyway, the market is still offline-centric as this channel alone drove 69% of the shipments in 2021.

Talking about brands, Xiaomi led the smart TV market in India throughout 2021 with an 18% market share. It was closely followed by Samsung with a 16% market share. The South Korean electronics giant’s entire TV shipments (smart and non-smart) accounted for 18%. LG, Sony, and OnePlus rounded off the top 5 with 11%, 6%, and 6% market shares respectively.

As far as interesting facts are concerned, OnePlus witnessed a record 354% shipment growth. Further, Sony was the most preferred brand over ₹40,000 segment. Finally, budget models were the best-selling TVs for all the brands.

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The year 2021 is now over, and looking back at the year in retrospect, 2021 saw the continued rise of mobile technology as more workers were given the option to work from home, and educational institutions were offering students the choice to study from home to complete their studies. Despite the ongoing chip shortages and supply chain disruptions by imposed lockdowns, 2021 was a growth year for many industries in tech such as the laptop market, the tablet market and most importantly the smartphone market.

Counterpoint Research has just released its annual report of the total global smartphone revenue across the year and the great news is that the smartphone market is still going strong on its ever-increasing market cap value and in 2021, the global smartphone market revenue reaches an all-time high of $448 billion USD. Compared to 2020’s $382 billion USD, global smartphone market revenue has grown over 7% YoY. in 2021, and smartphone makers are now generating more revenue than ever.

The report also mentions more than 85% of the smartphone market revenue generated were by the Top 5  most well-known smartphone brands, which are respectively: Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO(includes OnePlus) and vivo. The breakdown of each of the Big 5 performance’s in 2021 are as follows.

Apple

Apple led the global smartphone market revenues in 2021 with annual revenue of $196 billion, a 35% YoY growth compared to 2020. It captured 44% of total global smartphone revenue in 2021. As for the average selling price(ASP) of iPhones, Apple sold its iPhones at an ASP of $825 USD in 2021. This may be caused by the high demand for the 5G-enabled iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series with fancier design and more potent camera systems, which helps to maintain its original userbase as well as attract newer users in key emerging markets such as India, Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil.

Samsung

In 2nd comes South Korean tech giant, Samsung. Samsung’s smartphone revenue increased 11% YoY to reach $72 billion in 2021, compared to $64 billion in 2020. The average selling price for a Samsung smartphone grew 5% to $263 USD in 2021. Samsung managed to increase its global market share in the mid-range and premium segments with the launch of the Galaxy S flagship series and increase in the share of 5G phones, with the cheapest of the bunch being the Samsung Galaxy A22 5G. 

2021 also witnessed the launch of two foldable smartphones — Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Z Flip3, which also nudged the overall revenue higher. The lineup of foldables generated much buzz for the company for its industry breaking innovations and attract customers with its more extraordinary design. For those who wanted more than rectangular non-folding slabs of aluminium and glass, Samsung finally offered an alternative. Samsung shipped three times more foldable devices in 2021 than in 2020.

Xiaomi

Coming in 3rd is the value-to-performance king – Xiaomi. Xiaomi’s revenue increased 49% YoY to reach $36 billion in 2021, compared to $24 billion in 2020. This is mainly due to the increase in shipments and market share for its mid-range and premium segment flagship killers such as the Mi 11X series, Poco F3 series, Redmi Note 10 series globally. In India, the brand’s biggest market, the smartphones priced at $250 USD and above grew 39% YoY to account for more than 14% of Xiaomi’s India market, compared to 8% in 2020.

OPPO

Down to 4th place, is OPPO which saw the merger with its sister company OnePlus into one shared entity. The Counterpoint Research report also categorises OnePlus and OPPO as OPPO for the sake of data analysis. 

OPPO saw a revenue increase of 47% YoY to $37 billion in 2021. The ASP of its smartphones grew 15% YoY to reach $259 USD in 2021. The brand saw an increase in shipments in the $400-$599 and $600-$799 price bands, mainly owing to strong demand for the Reno 6 series, Find X3 and OnePlus 9 series. 5G-enabled smartphones contributed more than 50% of the brand’s yearly shipments in 2021 against 28% in 2020. OPPO also managed to expand its presence in mature markets such as China, Japan and parts of Europe (including Nordic countries), which drove the higher revenue and ASP. OnePlus revenue grew 33% YoY in 2021 driven by the OnePlus Nord series and the OnePlus 9 lineup.

vivo

Squeezing into the last spot within the Top 5 is the Chinese phone brand, vivo. vivo’s revenue increased 43% YoY to $34 billion USD in 2021. The average selling price (ASP) of vivo smartphones grew 19% YoY to reach $259 USD in 2021. The brand ranked as the fifth-largest smartphone vendor in 2021 both in terms of revenue and shipments. 

vivo’s revenue performance was driven by the well-received flagship vivo X60 and S series, exceptional performance in China and a wide product portfolio spread across all price bands. In 2021, the vendor also collaborated with Zeiss for its flagship vivo X60 and X70 series for its outstanding low-light camera performance in the industry.

And that was a quick recap of the report of the Top 5 Smartphone Brands in 2021. Compared to 2019, it looks to seem that Xiaomi has quickly filled up the void that Huawei left once the US sanctions hit the company and with fiercer competition from Realme, Lenovo and Asus in the smartphone market 2022, it remains to be seen if the Top 5 smartphone brands of 2021 will remain the Top 5 smartphone brands of 2022.

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Smartphone shipments in the Indian market have witnessed a growth of 11 percent year-on-year in the year 2021, despite several issues hitting the smartphone industry, ranging from a shortage of components to supply chain disruption.

The latest report from Counterpoint Research adds that the country saw shipments of 169 million units in 2021. However, the shipments in the fourth quarter (i.e. Q4 2021) witnessed a decline of 8 percent.

Chinese brand Xiaomi managed to retain its position at the top, covering a 24 percent market share. Unlike previous years, the company’s growth was quite limited to just 2 percent year-on-year.

The good news for Xioami is that the company managed to get more share in the premium segment this time, witnessing a massive growth of 258 percent. It’s noteworthy that the report considers devices priced above ₹30,000 as premium phones.

South Korean giant Samsung came in second with a market share of 18 percent while Vivo took the third spot as the company managed to capture about 15 percent of the market share, followed by Vivo’s sister companies Realme and OPPO with 14 percent and 10 percent market share respectively.

Talking about the 5G smartphones, Samsung emerges as the leading brand in the Indian market in Q4 2021. The South Korean giant also led in the mid-range segment with a 28 percent market share. The brand also managed to grow its share by triple digits in the foldable smartphones category.

Apple emerged as the fastest-growing smartphone brand in 2021 with 108 percent year-on-year growth. It led the premium segment in India with a massive 44 percent market share and the brand is now getting aggressive in the country, which could further help cement its position in the premium category.

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Apple, which has had a good year with the launch of the iPhone 13 series models in the market, has now emerged as the leading smartphone brand in the Chinese market for the fourth quarter of 2021.

According to the report from market research firm Counterpoint Research, Apple had a record-high market share in China in the fourth quarter of 2021, covering around 23 percent of the total smartphone market.

This indicates a year-on-year growth of 32 percent for the US-based tech giant. The report says that Apple’s pricing strategy helped to perform better in China, along with the exit of Huawei from the premium segment, making room for Apple to capture its market share.

Following Apple is China’s own Vivo with a 19 percent market share. The third spot has been captured by OPPO, having a 17 percent share. Both Vivo and OPPO have witnessed a decline of 6 percent year-on-year.

Honor has rapidly recaptured its position in the market and is now the fourth-largest smartphone brand in China, having a 15 percent share. The company also witnessed an impressive 50 percent YoY growth.

Xiaomi, Huawei, and Realme stand at fifth, sixth, and seventh positions respectively with 13 percent, 7 percent, and 3 percent market share. Other brands make up for the remaining 4 percent market share.

While brands like Apple, Honor, and Realme saw growth in Q4 2021, the overall Chinese smartphone market witnessed a 9 percent decline. However, for the entire year of 2021, Vivo emerged as the leading brand with a 22 percent market share, followed by OPPO, Apple, Xiaomi, Honor, Huawei, and Realme.

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Counterpoint Research has released its report on China Smartphone Market for Q3 2021. According to the firm, sales dropped by 9% YoY but increased by 3% QoQ. It is worth noting that the second quarter of 2021 witnessed the lowest Q2 sales since 2012. Hence, the QoQ improvement in the last quarter is negligible.

In Q2, the sales of smartphones in China plummeted as the competition could not fill the void left by HUAWEI. Whereas, in Q3, the lack of new features did not create enough demand for smartphones. At the same time, the industry went through component shortages.

Talking about bands, vivo continued to lead the market with a 23% market share, closely followed by OPPO with a 20% market share. As HONOR made a strong comeback with multiple products, it easily beat Xiaomi to take over the third position with a 15% market share.

India’s largest smartphone brand slipped to fourth place with a 14% market share in its home country. Apple, HUAWEI, and realme completed the chart with 13%, 8%, and 4% market shares respectively.

Unsurprisingly, HONOR was the fastest-growing smartphone brand in China in Q3 2021. Its market share almost doubled from 7.7% in Q2 2021 to 14.7% in Q3 2021 as the company’s sales grew 96% QoQ. It was expected as the brand is not only favored by the locals but over 30 distributors and retailers are its investors.

The HONOR 50 series and HONOR 20 were one of the top-sellers in the country last quarter. The HONOR Magic3 series, on the other hand, is not expected to be a major sales contributor even in the future.

HONOR’s biggest competitor will continue to be Xiaomi as both brands have a huge presence online. It will be interesting to see how these companies with stack up against each other in the coming quarters.

As far as the new market leaders are concerned, vivo and OPPO grew 21% YoY and 26% YoY respectively. However, their best-selling models were sub-$500 handsets like vivo S10, vivo S10 Pro, vivo Y31s, vivo Y52s, OPPO Reno6, OPPO A55, and OPPO A93.

Other Chinese OEMs are still struggling to make a name for themselves in the premium segment after the downfall of HUAWEI. Hence, Apple iPhones are currently the only most-preferred high-end smartphones by consumers in China.

Last but not least, 5G smartphone sales accounted for 79% of the total smartphones sales in China in Q3 2021. HONOR 20 and Redmi 9A were the only 4G-enabled devices in the top 10 best-selling smartphones list. Lack of 4G chips contributed to the increase in 5G phone sales but they also played a key role in an overall sales decline.

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Almost all sectors are affected by the global semiconductor shortage. At the same time, the smartphone market is also facing a shortage of components. Despite the struggles, smartphone sale in India is estimated to reach a new peak during the 2021 festive season.

According to a report by Counterpoint Research, smartphone sales in India during the 2021 festive season will hit a whopping $7.6 billion. The sales began in the first week of October and they are expected to last until Diwali (November 4).

It was Amazon and Flipkart, who kicked off this year’s festive season sale (as always) with their Great Indian Festival and Big Billion Days respectively.

High consumer demand will be the key driving factor of sales this year. It will be backed up by high pent-up demand and aggressive promotions in the mid and premium categories.

However, due to the shortage of components, OEMs have been forced to hike the price of several models. As a result, sales in the budget segment will be impacted.

Therefore, brands are offering promotions on mid-range and premium models to lure in customers, just like what Canalys pointed out recently. For instance, Xiaomi is trying its best to make a name in the premium category by providing attractive deals on the Mi 11 series of devices.

Finally, due to an increase in sales of mid-to-high tier (>$200) models, the overall ASP of smartphones in India during the 2021 festive season is forecasted to grow at 14% YoY. However, the sales growth will only increment by 1% YoY.

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The Chinese market has seen some significant changes in the last few years. Huawei which used to be the market leader is no longer in the top five. Following a poor second quarter, its worst in nine years, a new report for the month of July has surfaced and it too brings new changes.

The report which is by Counterpoint Research is for the month of July 2021(China), and it puts Vivo at the top with a market share of 24%, an increase of 1% from last quarter. OPPO takes the second spot with a market share of 20% while Xiaomi holds on to the third position with a 15% market share.

Things get more interesting as former Huawei subsidiary, Honor, overtakes Apple to grab the fourth position with a market share of 13%. That is nothing short of impressive considering Honor wasn’t in the top five at the end of the second quarter. Apple now sits at the fifth spot with a market share of 12% while Huawei comes in at sixth with an 8% market share.

A further breakdown reveals that Apple and Huawei lead the premium smartphone category with devices priced over $900. They also lead the category for phones priced between $600 to 800. However, for devices in the $200 to $300 category and $300 to $600 category, Vivo and OPPO are the leaders. For more budget phones priced below $400, OPPO is first while Honor comes in second. Xiaomi is the market leader for devices in the sub $100 category.

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Research firm Counterpoint Research has released its outlook of the global refurbished smartphone sales for 2020 and 2021. The research covered global sales of refurbished smartphones in 2020, with some solid projections for 2021.

The Counterpoint research showed a jump of 4% in global sales of refurbished phones in the second half of 2020, compared to the first half of the year. The overall performance in 2020 was also better than the previous year, 2019, which globally saw a decline in the market volume.

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many countries worldwide experienced substantial dips in their economies, with significant job losses reported in all the regions. This could have contributed to the rise in the patronage of refurbished phones, as shown by the Counterpoint research. Counterpoint also notes a sharp rise in demand and supply of refurbished smartphones in 2020, mainly in the second half of the year. Resell volumes and trade-ins were observed to have gone up in all the regions covered by the survey.

The regions covered by the Counterpoint research are the US, Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. With the average selling price of Apple refurbished phones up to three times higher than the average of other brands, greater preference was observed for the brand ahead of other brands in the secondary market. The more extensive rollout of 5G technology across 150 mobile operators in 70 countries did not affect the increased appetite for Apple phones, as shown by the numbers released by the Counterpoint Research.

The outlook for 2021, according to the research, remains bright within the secondary phone market globally. The sometimes significantly lower average selling prices of products in the secondary market could be fuelling the demand for products from the market. At the same time, supply may have been driven by several possible factors, including a dip in the global economy that has limited the purchasing power of some segments of consumers.

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Apple launched the iPhone 12 series smartphones a bit later than its usual timeframe because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the late start of sales for the devices, it has managed to register impressive growth.

As per the latest report from Counterpoint Research, the iPhone 12 series had more active users in the first quarter of this year compared to the active users iPhone 11 series had during the same time period last year.

It adds that the iPhone 11’s total share of active iPhone users was 15 percent by the first quarter of 2020 while the share of iPhone 12 is at 16 percent. Further, the report adds that “the iPhone 11 series performed well not only in its early days after launch but also maintained the momentum for a considerable period after the iPhone 12 series launch. The XS series accounted for 21% of the installed base in Q1 2020, but the iPhone 11 series accounted for 25% in Q1 2021, showing a 4% points difference.”

The report comes soon after the data research firm revealed that the iPhone 12 was the best-selling 5G smartphone in October. As per Counterpoint, the overall user base for iPhones has increased by 2 percent last year but this cannot be confirmed given that Apple has stopped disclosing iPhone sales figures.

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After recovering from the COVID-19 dip, the China Smartphone market is on the rise. The latest report by Counterpoint shows that Vivo has overhauled OPPO to become the largest smartphone brand in China.

Earlier in March, a similar report showed that OPPO became the No.1 Smartphone brand for the first time in January 2021. Now, Vivo has taken its turn to jump ahead of OPPO thanks to budget Vivo Y and S models.

That is, as of March 28, 2021(Week 13), Vivo holds the top spot with a market share of 24% as opposed to OPPO‘s 21% and Huawei‘s 15%. Comparing with the last report, we can see that Vivo has nearly grown its market share by 4% since January.

Do note that here Vivo also includes its sub-brand iQOO while OPPO’s share doesn’t include realme and OnePlus. Similarly, the share of Huawei, which led the smartphone market in 2021, doesn’t include its ex-sister HONOR.

Huawei’s rivals have been seeking to steal the legend’s lost market share for a while and it is clearly evident in the latest report. Anyway, the report says that 76% of Vivo’s sales in February 2021 accounts 5G portfolio.

This is a significant bump up from 0.5% in 2019 when it started churning out 5G devices like Vivo Nex 3. Also, Vivo is said to be positioning its product lineup very well with NEX, X, S, Y series. The first two are flagship with camera upgrades(like ZEISS tie-up) while the latter two are more affordable devices.

Not to mention the iQOO has been on a ride with more focus on the online market. OPPO, on the other hand, has flagship Reno and mid-range A devices. Let’s wait and see if Vivo is able to hold the spot with more to come in the next Quarter.

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Last year, Apple iPhone 11 topped the charts on the best-selling smartphones during the first half. Later, the device went on to be one of the most shipped smartphones for the entire year as well. Today, Counterpoint Research has come up with a report for the global Top 10 best-selling models for January 2021, and Apple dominates the list yet again with iPhone 12 at the top.

As per the report, Apple iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max accounted for 71% of Apple’s entire sales for the month and occupied the first three positions in the Top 10 list. As reported earlier, the demand was high for the 5G Apple devices due to a late launch in 2020.

The yesteryear iPhone 11 is still at the fourth spot and this isn’t that surprising considering the device is still a value for money for Apple lovers. Also, the report says that 1/3rd of Apple’s total sales comes from the US.

Apple also has two more devices on the list and one of them is the iPhone 12 mini, yes you heard it right. Reports said that Apple could discontinue the mini version by Q2 but look like it has garnered some sales in January. The other iPhone model is the iPhone SE 2020.

The Top-10 list is once again shared only by Samsung and Xiaomi apart from Apple. We have Redmi 9A and Redmi 9 in the fifth and sixth spots. The report says that the sub $150 phones accounted for 25% of Xiaomi’s total sales for January.

Talking about Samsung, the Galaxy A21s and the Galaxy A31, which recently got price cuts in India, occupy the seventh and ninth spot respectively. Lastly, the report says that Xiaomi is growing gradually in the MEA region while Samsung is looking to attract more HONOR with its Galaxy A devices.

That being said, with more 5G mid-range devices launching in the coming months, we can expect them to dominate the Top 10 list this year.

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With HUAWEI’s decline, fellow Chinese OEMs have been trying their best to fill the void left by the once world’s largest smartphone maker. In fact, OPPO succeeded to become China’s largest smartphone brand for the first time since its inception in January 2021.

According to Counterpoint Research, OPPO’s market share in China stood at 21% in January 2021. The company was closely followed by vivo at 20%. Whereas, other top brands like HUAWEI, Apple, and Xiaomi had a 16% market share each.

As per Counterpoint Research’s Market Pulse Service, sales of OPPO smartphones grew 33% MoM (month-on-month) and 26% YoY (year-on-year) in January 2021. The OEM was also the largest 5G smartphone brand in the sub-$600 segment and second-largest as a whole.

OPPO was able to pull this because of HUAWEI’s steady decline. Both HUAWEI and HONOR have been continuously losing their market share due to the shortage of 5G smartphone components on account of the US sanctions.

OPPO’s success comes from the strong sales of the OPPO Reno5 series, which includes OPPO Reno5, OPPO Reno5 Pro, and OPPO Reno5 Pro+. The latest-gen Reno series was introduced at 10% cheaper, compared to its predecessor.

That’s not all, the OPPO A72 5G has been the best-selling 5G smartphone in its price segment since November 2020. Nearly one-third of the 5G handsets sold in China cost less than $300. Both the OPPO Reno and A series helped the company gain market share from HUAWEI’s nova and Enjoy series. 

More than 65% of the handset sold in China in Q4 2020 were 5G-enabled. But HUAWEI and HONOR could not meet the demand, As a result, distributors in the country have now turned towards brands like OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi. The former two now rule the offline channels while the latter is seeing growth across online channels.

Ever since HUAWEI sold HONOR, its market share even shrank further. The company is now only focused on selling premium phones with higher margins.

HUAWEI had more than 10,000 retail and experience stores across its home country at its peak. But that number has been now dwindling since Q4 2020. Competitors are expected to benefit more from the company’s further decline in 2021.

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Counterpoint Research today released a ranking report on smartphone manufacturers’ software, security updates and build quality. The report shows that HMD Global’s Nokia mobile phones are among the best on the list with updated operating systems and security updates, and mobile phones with durability exceeding the industry average (currently all of Nokia’s 20 compliant models are Android 10).

Nokia is closely followed by OnePlus, Samsung, Realme, Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO, Lenovo, LG and Vivo.

Counterpoint analysts say HMD’s mobile phone product line has the highest-ranking compared to other competing brands, partly because all of its mobile phones receive security patches every month. OnePlus equally has a near-perfect score as 90% of all its supported devices get security patches every month.

Furthermore, for Samsung and Huawei, the proportions are 22% and 29% respectively, which means that most of their phones are on the quarterly patch plan. Realme and Xiaomi also performed relatively better in this regard. Two-thirds of all Realme and Xiaomi mobile phones are updated with monthly security patches.

Regarding quality, the report noted that HMD Global’s testing procedures are stricter than the industry average. Commenting on build quality results, Counterpoint Research’s Associate Director, Tarun Pathak stated, “The build quality pillar was evaluated on several criteria including product robustness, force measurement, drop and impact, fatigue, wear and scratch, thermal tests, moisture and liquid tests, and others which included both qualitative and quantitative observations. We found that Nokia phones undergo tougher tests than the industry average. We, therefore, concluded that when considered alongside the faster software and security updates the strong build quality means Nokia phones will last the test of time which is increasingly important at a time when global device replacement cycles are getting longer, now approaching 30 months.”

You can download the full report from here.

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Ever since the pandemic became worse, people around the world have been staying indoors as much as possible. Even their shopping preferences have changed over the course of the last few months. A recent survey by Counterpoint Research on smartphone shopping in the UK, Germany, and Spain paints a similar picture.

UK

Talking about the UK first, the online smartphone sales currently sit at ~35% in the country. According to the research firm, the online sales has moderately increased since Q1 2020. Above all, they sustained even after the re-opening of brick and mortar stores.

The survey revealed that 90% of UK consumers preferred to make their purchase from either electronic stores or supermarkets. That’s because consumers in this country want to experience the device in a “more engaged manner”.

Even retailers like Carphone Warehouse and Currys PC World are aware that consumers prefer buying from large format stores rather than smaller standalone mobile shops

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That’s because these companies allow consumers to buy the latest phones without making an upfront full payment. They also provide options to bundle plan charges with phone instalments, in addition to direct debit options with offers and treats.

As per the UK consumers who participated in the survey, convenience was their top-most priority while shopping followed by probability of cheaper pricing.

That said, almost 60% of this survey respondents have a monthly income of less than £ 1600. More than 40% of individuals are planning to buy a phone from an operator are self-employed. Whereas, more than 50% of those willing to make an upfront payment are either homemakers or unemployed.

Germany and Spain

Unlike the consumers in the UK, those in Germany and Spain have changed their preference for buying smartphones to online by a high margin. 

For instance, the survey revealed that 35% and 30% of respondents from Germany and Spain respectively purchased their current phone online. Most importantly, a whopping 90% of Germans said that their next smartphone purchase will be online compared to 76% Spaniards, which is not a small number anyway.

Further, consumers in these two countries mostly prefer full up-front payment and retailers like Amazon, Media Markt, Saturn, Comtech, Fnac, Conectrol and Walmart.

As for numbers, 41% of Germans chose upfront payment in the survey and 42% of these respondents are salaried. The numbers for Spain is 53% and 61% respectively.

Last but not least, consumers who selected upfront payment earn less than €1,900 per month. They prefer this mode of buying because of cheaper deals and better offers.

Conclusion

Counterpoint Research says that ASPs (average selling prices) of smartphones will decrease as consumers are expected to reduce their budget. Also, going by their survey, most of the consumers will opt for a full upfront payment for their next phone to reduce a deferred liability.

Lastly, respondents from all the three countries said that they are not looking to reduce touchpoints despite they are concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Huawei is dominating the Chinese smartphone market. The company currently has a hold of nearly half of the smartphone market share in the region and is one of the leaders in the 5G market as well.

According to a new report by Counterpoint, the Chinese tech giant accounts for 46 percent of all smartphone sales in China. This amounts to more than the market share of its rivals including Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi combined. It also marks the highest market share held by Huawei in its entire history in China, with sales being 14 percent higher than the same period back in 2019.

Notably, the news arrives during the time where Huawei’s products have been criticized and shunned in various western countries. Furthermore, the company’s international sales have declined sharply as well. However, Huawei has invested heavily in its home country where it is still growing strong despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and scrutiny.

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This also arrives after the company lost TSMC as its chip supplier due to US sanctions. In China, the smartphone market has declined by a total of 17 percent, with competitors like Vivo losing 29 percent market share, Oppo witnessing a 31 percent decline, and Xiaomi falling by 35 percent in the same period. The decline is also primarily due to the viral outbreak, although, the situation is better than in early 2020.

One of the segments where Huawei dominates is the 5G handset market. The company has a foothold of about 60 percent for 5G devices in China, where the most number of 5G enabled smartphones are sold. Interestingly, one in every three smartphones sold in China was 5G ready. Similar to Huawei, even Apple made great strides in this period, with its growth being even higher than the Chinese brand, reaching a 32 percent rise year on year.

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A fresh report has revealed that one in every three smartphone users will be cutting down their spendings by up to 20 percent for the purchase of their next smartphone.

The report arrives from Counterpoint Research, a known analytical firm. According to their findings, the primary reason for the lowered spending is the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. At the moment, various industries and economies have taken a sizeable hit, with consumer expenditure seeing a significant decline during this time.

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This overall translates to a negative trend for the smartphone industry and its total annual sales figures for 2020. The study was conducted over the US, UK, India, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy and found a few interesting aspects. Countries like India, Spain, and Italy had a majority of people planning on waiting before purchasing a new handset. On the other hand, regions like the US had a minority of those that are planning on delaying buying a smartphone.

According to Pavel Naiya, a Senior Analyst, “The coronavirus outbreak and future income uncertainty has affected consumer behavior with many strictly limiting purchasing to only the essentials. Smartphone consumers from Spain and Italy are the most affected. Consumers intending to cut their future smartphone purchase budget by 20% or more are highest in Spain (27%) and Italy (25%), followed by the USA (24%). Looking at the current circumstances, we expect this trend will continue until mid-2021.”

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(Source)

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The Indian TV market has seen significant growth in recent times, especially due to the budget friendly offerings from various brands. These include TVs from Xiaomi, TCL, Samsung, Vu and more. The market hit 15 million unit shipments in 2019, marking a year on year growth of 15 percent in 2018.

The Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi, led the smart TV market while Samsung took top spot in the overall TV segment. The former saw significant growth this year with a year on year rise of 40 percent. According to reports, the surge is accredited to budget smart TVs in the 32 inch category, that led the segment due to its 11,000 INR price segment (roughly 150 US Dollars).

A report under “TV Tracker Service” from Counterpoint, a renowned analytics firm, revealed the aforementioned figures. Furthermore, a Senior Analyst even mentioned that, “affordability and value for money are the key growth drivers. The new crop of brands such as Xiaomi, TCL and others are tapping their existing relationships with e-commerce channels such as Flipkart, Amazon, etc to successfully distribute the TVs affordably with a direct-to-consumer model.”

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In other words, the Indian TV market saw growth due to certain key factors like affordability and price to value offerings. Additionally, major e-retailers like Amazon and Flipkart supplemented this growth through easier accessibility. Samsung saw a growth of 6 percent in 2019 (YoY), with most of its growth coming from its smart TV offerings which included the N5000, N7000, R5000 and R7000 lineup.

The South Korean tech giant was also successful in the 50,000 INR price and higher price segments, with a reported market share of 40 percent. Although its non-smart TV portfolio saw an overall decline. The company is still the market leader in the Indian subcontinent but emerging players are making a sizeable impact as well. Best examples of this are Xiaomi and TCL. Both brands have 4K Smart TV offerings around the 50,000 INR mark, which is uncommon in most cases. Even OnePlus‘ smart TV is priced at 100,000 INR, although, it features a QLED 4K smart TV with a 50W Soundbar.

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(Via)

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Samsung’s Unpacked event is right around the corner as the anticipation for its 2020 flagship series, the Galaxy S20 lineup grows. The smartphone will succeed the popular Galaxy S10 series and reportedly may see sales figures surpassing 40 million units.

According to Counterpoint, a research and analytics agency, Samsung’s Galaxy S20 series may surpass 40 million units in total shipments. The firm believes that the improvements to the South Korean giant’s upcoming flagship will make it highly attractive to potential buyers. The flagship series will arrive with various performance improvements alongside photography as a major area apart from other aspects as well.

The large sum of Galaxy S20 series unit shipments is also reflective of the recovering and growing global smartphone market. In recent years, Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S series smartphone offerings have been popular in many regions. The latest iteration’s improvements in the photography side will seek to continue this pattern too.

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The base Samsung Galaxy S20 model will be equipped with a 12 megapixel primary camera alongside a 64 megapixel telephoto lens, 12 megapixel ultra wide lens and a ToF sensor as well. On the other hand, the Galaxy S20 Ultra model is stated to arrive with a massive 108 megapixel sensor along with a 48 megapixel telephoto lens for 10x zoom and 100x digital zoom. Furthermore, it is being speculated that the RAM offerings will be sizeable too, with up to 16GB being configurations being available.

Unfortunately, we will have to wait for the Samsung Unpacked event for the official announcement to know for sure if the Galaxy S20 series is worth such a high market expectation. The event takes place on the 11th of February 2020, so stay tuned for launch updates and more.

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(Source)

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Over the past year, Realme has been churning out value for money smartphones across a number of price segments. Most Realme devices have gone head to head with Redmi’s bestsellers, and more often than not, it has managed to grab a chunk of Redmi’s market share in the segment. The company’s immense growth is now visible in terms of shipment numbers as well. Today, Counterpoint revealed that Realme shipped more than 10 million units in Q3 2019.

What’s more, this figure marks an incredible 808% YoY growth for the brand, which now ranks 7th in the top global smartphone list. It got into the top 10 smartphone brand’s list in Q2 2019 but now has leaped to the 7th position in Q3 2019. It’s no surprise that Realme is now the fastest-growing smartphone brand in the world.

In a market, which is traditionally extremely hard to crack, achieving such a high level of growth in just a year is truly commendable. Notably, India and Indonesia contribute to nearly 80% of the company’s shipments. Recently, it became the fourth largest brand in India grabbing a 16% market share. Realme is already present in over 20 countries and with the recent Realme X2 Pro launch, it aims to crack the European market as well.

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For the past couple of years, Samsung has continued to dominate the smartphone industry with just Huawei posing any real threat to that dominance in recent times. However, the Korean tech giant remains unassailable at the top of the charts, a recent research report of the global smartphone industry for Q2 2019 by Strategy Analytics and Counterpoint show.

Both reports confirm that the smartphone shipment fell year-over-year. The decline didn’t affect Samsung and Huawei as they saw a modest increase in shipments and market share during the period.

Strategy Analytics data shows that the global shipments fell 2.6% while Samsung recorded 1.9% increase, Huawei gained 1.7% and Apple lost 0.7% year-over-year. Talking of figures, Samsung sold 76.3 million smartphone units in Q2 2019 while 58.7 million devices were shipped by Huawei. Apple managed to ship 38 million iPhones.

Samsung remains the top smartphone manufacturer, Huawei and Apple follow
Xiaomi and Oppo follow the top three OEMs with 9.4% and 8.7% market shares. Both companies also saw a slight increase in their market share.

Counterpoint’s research gives roughly the same data with a bit more detail for the rest of the brands in the top 10. Samsung’s market share is around the 20% mark, Huawei nearly 16% and Apple with a little over 10% share. All three OEMs have a slightly lower market share according to Counterpoint’s research. And on the contrary to Strategy Analytics’ report, global shipments are down just 1.2% as opposed to 2.6%.

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Counterpoint’s data also shows that HMD Global Nokia’s shipment grew by 20% in Q2 2019 YoY. The company clinches the 9th place in the global rankings which is a monumental achievement for a relatively new company. Lenovo and Vivo also record a modest increase in sales while LG struggles to keep it afloat. Realme’s growth is 848%, which is normal given that the company’s first smartphone was released in Q2 2019 last year.

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(source 1, 2)

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The high-end segment is the money spinner for phone manufacturers as that is where the most profit is made. It is no surprise Apple is the top performer in this category. However, according to Counterpoint’s stats for Q3 2018, Chinese smartphone companies are cashing in in this segment with Huawei leading the pack.

Counterpoint says the high-end smartphone segment witnessed its fastest growth in the third quarter of 2018. While the overall smartphone market declined by 5%, the premium segment grew by 19% that quarter

The market research firm has split the premium smartphone segment into three tiers – the $400 – $600 category, the $600 – $800 category, and the $800 and up category.

For the first category, Samsung is king here with 25% of the market share and is followed closely by Apple with 21%. Huawei comes next with a market share of 17%. Vivo and OPPO claim the 4th and 5th spots with 10% and 7% respectively and Xiaomi is 6th with a 6% market share.

In the $600 to $800 tier, Apple leads with a market share of 61%, three times more than Samsung that is at second place with a market share of 21%. Apple also leads the $800+  tier with a 79% market share. Counterpoint says Huawei also made its mark in the second tier with its Huawei P20 Pro flagship but it isn’t shown on the charts.

READ MORE: Huawei’s annual revenue crosses $100 billion for the first time

Even when the research is limited to just China, Apple is still at the top of the premium smartphone market and is followed by Huawei. Vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi take the third, fourth and fifth spots. Huawei is also one of the top three in the Middle East, Latin America, and Western Europe while Xiaomi takes the lead in Central and East Asia.

(Via)

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Research firm Counterpoint has released its statistical data for the third quarter of 2017 and it cuts across all the regions of the world. The statistical data shows the global smartphone market shares for Q3 2017 as well as the mobile phone market shipment comprising both smartphones and feature phones. The stats showed that the global smartphone shipments grew 5% YoY and 9% QoQ.

Samsung maintains its stronghold on the smartphone industry, with a 21% control of the market shares while Apple retained its second spot with a 12% share of the market. Chinese tech giant Huawei slipped closely into the third position with 10% share of the market, narrowly losing out to Apple for the second spot. Huawei is closely followed by OPPO with 8% market share. Vivo and Xiaomi both completed the top 5 spot with  7% market share apiece. The data saw the surprise inclusion of Lenovo, including the Motorola brand, which raked in a 4% share of the market in Q3 2017. Counterpoint also noted that Xiaomi emerged as the fastest growing smartphone brand with a growth of 84% YoY. 

Read Also: Xiaomi CEO Targets 100 Million Smartphone Shipments in 2018

Region wise, Apple maintained its leadership in North America with a 34% market share while Samsung came in second with 24% share. LG gained some ground in North America with a share of 17%. The top five spots are completed by ZTE – 11% and Lenovo- 5%. On the other hand, in Europe, Samsung holds the ace with a 33% share of the market while Apple came in at a distant second with 17% share. Huawei failed to gain ground in North America but was able to clinch the third place in Europe with a market share of 13%. Lenovo and ZTE completed the top 5 in Europe for Q3 2017. In Asia, the competition is stiffer as OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung struggled unsuccessfully to outpace each other. The statistics also captured the emerging market in the Middle East and Africa and sure, Samsung grabbed the lion share and in second place we have a surprise entrant- iTel in a tie with Huawei and Tecno at 8% market share apiece. Counterpoint noted that one in three smartphones shipped were from Chinese manufacturers.

(source)

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It’s already a year since HMD Global Oy kickstarted its lofty bid to revive the moribund Nokia brand. One year after, HMD Global seems to have succeeded in its mission as the brand has recorded accelerated growth, with Nokia’s towering sentimental value standing as its biggest catalyst.

Counterpoint research has now revealed that Nokia shipped close to 16 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2017. Out of that record figure for a new entrant to the phone business, 2.8 million Nokia Android smartphones were sold while the company’s feature phones marshalled by the new Nokia 3310 took the lion share with a total of 13.5 million shipments.

Within a year of its existence, HMD Global has brought back the Nokia brand into the global mobile market with accelerated growth. Counterpoint Research claims that 2.8 million Nokia Android smartphones and 13.5 million Nokia feature phones were shipped in Q3 2017. There is no doubt that the Nokia 3310 contributed a great deal to this impressive sales figure for just the third quarter of the year.

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This figure puts Nokia in the third position of the top feature phones vendor while it sits far behind at number 16 on the smartphone vendor list. Nokia’s smartphones have enjoyed a favourable receivership since the launch of the Nokia 6 mid-range smartphone earlier this year. According to Counterpoint Research, the release of a number of mid-range and flagship models and the brand’s past antecedence contributed to the gain in market share. Nokia has launched a number of smartphones this year, including the Nokia 2, Nokia 3, Nokia 5, Nokia 7 and its first flagship phone- Nokia 8. An earlier data had shown that Nokia shipped just 1.5 million smartphones in the first half of 2017. So, 2.8 million shipments in Q3 alone is pretty impressive and shows the brand is getting more acceptance. The company is expected to consolidate on its successes for this year next year and already, HMD is getting set to open the year with the flagship Nokia 9 which has been a regular on leaks and rumours.

(source)

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Counterpoint’s newest smartphone market survey for India has revealed that because of the strong sales of smartphones and featurephones, handset shipments have crossed 84 million mark for the first time in India. Also, Samsung and Xiaomi account for 45 percent of smartphone market in India in Q3 2017.

According to Counterpoint’s market research for the third quarter of this year, Samsung has a market share of 23 percent. The South Korean company is closely followed by Xiaomi with a market share of 22 percent. In Q3 2016, Samsung and Xiaomi had respective market shares of 23 percent and 6 percent. Xiaomi’s strong performance in mid-range smartphone segment (Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000) has catapulted it to rival with Samsung in India.

Counterpoint Associate Director Tarun Pathak claims that Xiaomi accounts for three of the top 5 bestselling smartphones in the country. It appears that Xiaomi may soon dethrone Samsung to become the number smartphone brand in India. Vivo, OPPO and Lenovo are respectively placed on third, fourth and fifth positions on Counterpoint’s smartphone market research for Q3 2017.

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This shows the dominance of Chinese smartphone brands in India. For the third consecutive quarter, their market share has remained more than 50 percent after they surpassed local brands in second half of previous year.

Reliance Jio that was commercially launched its 4G LTE network in September 2016 has not only significantly increased the mobile data consumption in India but also driven the demand for 4G enabled phones. It has been found that 97 percent of the smartphones shipped in Q3 2017 are LTE enabled devices. In a short span of less than a year, it has managed to add 100 million subscribers to its network and it is looking forward to adding another 100 million users with the launch of its LTE enabled JioPhone featurephone.

When it comes featurephone shipments, Samsung is leading the pack in Q3 2017 with a market share of 23 percent. ITEL, Micromax, HMD Global’s Nokia, and Lava make up the top five featurephone brands in India. The featurephone market has met with 22 percent (QoQ) with the arrival of handsets that are priced around Rs. 1,000 like the JioPhone and Nokia branded phones.

During the third quarter of 2017, the premium segment that includes smartphones costing more than Rs. 30,000 have met threefold growth (YoY) during Q3 2017. The market leaders in the premium segment are Apple, OnePlus and Samsung in the same quarter.

(source)

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