The number of smartphones shipped in Europe this quarter fell by eleven percent compared to last year. About 40 million smartphones were shipped in the second quarter of this year, the lowest number since 2020. Almost every smartphone manufacturer is seeing its market share fall, and Apple and Samsung are benefiting from this. They see their share increase significantly.
Smartphone market is falling sharply
According to counterpoint, a global research firm, the European smartphone market has shipped no less than 11 percent fewer smartphones this year. This compared to the same quarter of last year. With the earlier decline in the first quarter of this year, the market is down a total of 13 percent compared to last year. In the second quarter of 2022, there are now about 40 million smartphones shipped, making it the worst quarter since the same quarter in 2020. This has several reasons, according to Counterpointsearch. Geopolitical uncertainty is one of the biggest reasons, they say. These include military conflicts, climate change and trade disputes. Think, for example, of the conflict in Ukraine and the rising tensions between the United States and China. The global chip shortage and corona also play a role, especially Chinese manufacturers are affected by the latter. Due to the many lockdowns there, brands such as Xiaomi and OPPO have difficulty shipping smartphones. This is also reflected in the share figures.
In these share figures we see that almost all Chinese smartphone manufacturers see their share of smartphones sold decrease. Samsung in particular seems to benefit from this, as they see their share increase by more than five percent. You can see the percentages in the graph below.
Chart: Share of European smartphone shipments by brand, Q2 2022. Image counterpoint
Samsung is rising, but there is a but
So we see that Samsung is still the number one supplier of smartphones in Europe. The company saw its market share increase sharply compared to 2021. It should be noted that Q1 of 2021 was a very bad quarter for Samsung, due to the closure of several factories of the manufacturer. Samsung has also shipped fewer smartphones in terms of total numbers compared to the first quarter of this year. This is due to the withdrawal from Russia.
According to Counterpoint, the smartphone market will continue to grow, but the recovery will be ‘long and slow’, according to them. However, they think the bottom has been reached for now. Although the tensions surrounding Taiwan could of course still play a role. We’ll keep an eye on it.
– Thanks for information from Androidworld. Source