Not even a month ago, Xiaomi overtook Apple to become the second most successful smartphone manufacturer in the world. Now it’s creeping up on Samsung, and while it still trails behind globally, it has managed to steal the South Korean giant’s crown as the biggest phone maker in Europe.
Xiaomi’s climb to the top
According to Strategy Analytics, an analysis firm, in Europe in Q2 2021 Xiaomi topped Samsung’s 12 million shipped devices by a further 700,000, narrowly sliding ahead as the top brand on the continent. This gives Xiaomi 25.3% of the total market share, and its South Korean rival 24%. Apple holds 19.2%. 5.6% goes to Oppo, 3.8% to Realme, and the remaining 22.2% belongs to other brands.
Xiaomi managed to pull off an impressive 67.1% year-on-year growth, whereas Samsung experienced a 7% decline. Interestingly Oppo enjoyed a yearly growth of 180%, and Realme grew an astounding 1,800%. The fledgling manufacturer began in India and China in 2018, and entered the European market in 2019. It only penetrated subsequent worldwide markets later on into 2019 and through 2020. In such a competitive market, Realme’s yearly growth is remarkable.
Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics notes that Samsung is facing increased competition from Apple in the high-end smartphone sphere, and from Chinese manufacturers in the mid and low-end ranges. Additionally, it appears that Xiaomi is taking full advantage of Huawei’s stepping back from the European smartphone market, which is serving it particularly well thanks to the fact that Samsung hasn’t done the same thing.
How the rest of the year goes for the Chinese manufacturer will be interesting to watch, particularly with up-and-comers like Realme thrown into the mix.