Analyst: Xiaomi leads the smartphone market in Europe for the first time

Xiaomi overtook Samsung in the European smartphone market in the second quarter of this year, Strategy Analytics says. It is the first time that Xiaomi has the largest market share in Europe.

Xiaomi shipped 12.7 million smartphones in Europe in the quarter, Strategy Analytics writes. That is good for a market share of 25.3 percent and with that Samsung has been pushed to second place. For years, Samsung has been at the top in Europe when it comes to market share. Apple remains in third place.

Xiaomi has grown considerably in Europe compared to the same period last year. According to Strategy Analytics, this represents a growth of 67.1 percent and the relatively cheap phones of the Chinese brand are particularly successful in Russia, Ukraine, Spain and Italy.

According to the analyst firm, Xiaomi is growing at the expense of Samsung. Samsung’s 5G models in the Galaxy A series are doing well, but in the lower segment there is competition from companies such as Xiaomi and in the higher segment Apple is taking market share with iPhones.

The growth of Xiaomi also has to do with the disappearance of Huawei. Since that company can no longer offer Google services, its market share has been marginalized in Europe. Oppo and Realme are also growing strongly in Europe, but still have a relatively small market share. The smartphone market grew by 14.4 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

Earlier this year, Xiaomi announced that it had overtaken Apple in the European smartphone market. That concluded the manufacturer after the first quarter, in which it had delivered 49.4 million phones in Europe. In that quarter, Xiaomi still had to tolerate Samsung.

Xiaomi’s global market share is 17 percent, according to Canalys. This puts the company in second place behind Samsung, which has a worldwide market share of 19 percent. Apple is third with 14 percent.