iPhone 13 brings back Apple’s European lead in Q4 21

The introduction of iPhone 13 quite evidently pushed Apple to the top of the smartphone market in Europe in 2021 (and worldwide), according to the latest data from Counterpoint – though Samsung led the market across the year overall.

What’s happening in Europe?

The analyst’s note that 2021 was a strange kind of year. Market leadership was not cut and dried. Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi all led the market at various times of the year, during which four different leaders emerged.

The iPhone 13 led sales in China last year.

Apple started the year on a high with a market leading 34% share. In February, Samsung launched its Galaxy S21 series which, at least initially, sold well, helping Samsung’s sales grow by 24% compared to January and pushing it to the top spot in February 2021.

Samsung then suffered significant supply issues starting in May due to COVID-19 related factory shutdowns in Vietnam, which opened the door for Xiaomi to become number one in Europe for the first time, in June 2021 (helped by good growth in Russia, Spain and Italy). Samsung to Xioami and Apple danced all year, though Apple seized the lead on November 2021.

The iPhone SE3 with 5G will doubtless give Apple a bounce mid-year, and may even see some carriers offering up decent deals.

The crisis continues

The analysis suggests Europe may be seeing a little recovery following a really tough COVID-19 damaged year – though we are far from the edge of the wood yet, nor are we out of it. Counterpoint also points to continued component shortages.

The impact?

European smartphone market managed to grow by 8% in 2021, but this was only a partial recovery.

Counterpoint Research’s Associate Director, Jan Stryjak said:

“It is great to see the European smartphone market growing in 2021, but that only tells half the story; COVID-19 impacts resulted in a 14% annual drop in sales in 2020, which means the market is still well-below pre-pandemic levels.”

Stryjak added,

“Amajor factor to consider, though, is the decline of Huawei. Huawei’s sales dropped by almost 90% annually in Europe in 2021, leaving it on less than 1% market share and in 8th position (down from 4th in 2020). But while Huawei had another year to forget in Europe, other vendors, especially some of the Chinese challengers, certainly had a year to celebrate.”

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