CR: 2021 was the most competitive year for smartphone sales in Europe
Counterpoint Research has issued its annual analysis of the European smartphone market today, and this reveals sales were up 8% over 2020. That"s encouraging, but it"s still not back to pre-pandemic levels (keep in mind that 2020 sales dropped 14% compared to 2019).
On the other hand, last year was by far the most competitive ever in the European smartphone space, with the No.1 company changing four times throughout.
In the last quarter of the year, Samsung narrowly beat out Apple by 1% - the two scored 33% and 32%, respectively. They were followed by Xiaomi with 15% (down from 17% in Q4 2020, however), Oppo with 7%, then Realme and vivo both with 2%. Other players accounted for only 9% of sales, a significant drop of 47% compared to the year-ago quarter.
Moving over to the full year results, Samsung managed to win out here too, with 32% market share - unchanged from 2020, as a matter of fact. Apple followed with 26%, growing slightly from 22% in 2020, then came Xiaomi with 20% (up from 14%), Oppo with 8% (up from 5%), Realme with 2% (up from 1%), and vivo with 1% (same as the year before).
Throughout the year, Samsung led most of the time, but Apple was No.1 twice, and Xiaomi once in June. In December, Apple reached its highest ever market share in Europe, while Xiaomi ended 2021 with the highest yearly sales ever in the continent. Oppo, vivo, and Realme also had their best year ever in Europe last year.
