Counterpoint Research a market research agency, revealed in its latest report that European smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2023 were 38 million units. This represents an annual decline of 23%, the worst quarterly performance since Q2 2012. But even so, Xiaomi still achieved the highest growth ahead of Samsung and Apple.
Samsung continues to maintain its leading position, mainly thanks to the success of its flagship Galaxy S23 in the European market. Samsung's current market share in Europe is 34%, 1 percentage point lower than in Q1 2022, with shipments down 27% year-on-year.
Apple came second, with market share up 1 percentage point from 25 to 26 percent and shipments down 21 percent year-on-year.
Xiaomi came in third place, with market share increasing from 14% to 19%, an increase of 5 percentage points, and shipments down 4% year-on-year.
OPPO and realme finished fourth and fifth with market shares of 4 and 3 percent respectively, while shipments were down 47 and 36 percent year-on-year.
"We predicted that the difficult conditions would get worse before they got better, and this was borne out by the worst quarter of smartphone shipments we have seen in Europe for more than a decade. Nevertheless, we remain optimistic that economic pressures will ease over the next few quarters, boosting consumer confidence and leading to a better year-end."
“The cost-of-living crisis continued to impose misery on European consumers, leading to a difficult start to 2023. However, there was some good news: despite losing share, Samsung successfully launched its latest flagship by the first quarter of 2022, the Galaxy 23 series (outselling both the S22 and the S21), while Apple gained share year on year (although this was more due to the fact that it declined less than some other manufacturers). But the biggest winner was Xiaomi, he is the only major supplier to record an increase in shipments after complaining about a very poor first quarter of 2022." - Jan Stryjak
