A new crop of Chinese smartphone vendors is conquering Europe while taking advantage of Huawei’s decline. Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Realme, and OnePlus together almost quadrupled their shipments in the two years from Q1 2019 to Q1 2021 in the old continent. Chinese Smartphones europe

While Huawei’s numbers were down by three quarters, thanks to the US preventing it from getting hold of most chips and from offering a proper version of Android, the overall market grew by 6%. This was thanks to Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus and Realme (the latter three all owned by BBK Electronics, as is Vivo) collectively doubling their shipment numbers.

Chinese vendors usually enter the European market through its eastern border, before moving to the west about a year later. The total market share of the five Chinese “newcomers” in Central & Eastern Europe has been about 10%-15% higher than in Western Europe, but the gap is likely to decrease with time when the companies build better brand recognition in Western Europe.

Smartphone wholesale average selling piece (ASP) in Central & Eastern Europe in 2020 was around the US$200 mark, which is a sweet spot for the Chinese OEMs. Four out of the five Chinese vendors mentioned above sell about half of their volumes in the mid-tier (US$100-190) segment.

The outlier here is OnePlus, which sells almost three-quarters of its smartphones in the premium (>US$300) price tier. That also explains the reason why OnePlus is the only one of the five vendors to have a bigger presence in Western Europe than in Central & Eastern Europe.

Despite the great success, there are still challenges the Chinese “newcomers” will need to be aware of.

Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) clients can find the answers of all questions, and much more, in the full report here. Chinese Smartphones europe

“Q1 2021 was a prime example of the intensely competitive nature of the European smartphone market,” said Jan Stryjak of Counterpoint. “January saw Apple as the clear leader following its most successful device launch ever; Samsung rebounded in February on the back of strong sales of its latest flagship Galaxy S21 series and popular Galaxy A series; and then Xiaomi reached its highest market share in Europe ever in March thanks to the launch of its own flagship Mi11 devices. Oppo, OnePlus, Realme and Vivo also continue to grow strongly, with most having launched new devices in the quarter.”