Last week we reported on the success of Xiaomi, with the Chinese brand ranking second among smartphone vendors in terms of device shipments, according to Canalys. Following that report, another research firm in Strategy Analytics has also looked at Q2 2021, but focused specifically on the European region as Xiaomi has taken Samsung’s top spot for the quarter.
This represents both a 25 percent market share and growth of 14 percent year-on-year for Xiaomi as 12.7 million units were shipped.
Samsung was relatively close at 12 million shipped in the quarter, followed by Apple with 9.6 million and Oppo rounded out the top four some distance behind at 2.8 million.
As we saw in the aforementioned Canalys report, Huawei has fallen out of the top five altogether, which is not that surprising given the recently unveiled P50 series has no details on launch outside of China.
Looking a bit deeper at its performance, Strategy Analytics notes that the value for money devices that Xiaomi specialises in, has seen it garner plenty of interest across the EU, with consumers still unwilling to buy more expensive flagship phones during the pandemic.
“The European markets for smartphones had a strong quarter driven by Covid recovery, following the crash in 2020. The highlight of the quarter is Xiaomi emerging as the number one vendor in shipment terms for the first time. Xiaomi shipped almost 13 million units on the continent to displace longtime leader Samsung. Xiaomi has seen great success in Russia, Ukraine, Spain and Italy among others and found customers eager for its Mi and Redmi series of feature rich, value smartphones,” explains Boris Metodiev, associate director at Strategy Analytics.
“The smartphone market rebound was driven by the continued economic recovery, a healthy demand from consumers with aging devices and appealing value priced 5G devices,” adds the research firm.
As The Verge posits, the recent success in Europe could prompt Xiaomi to venture into North America, but given the fact that the company has only recently been removed from the entity list, the company may take a more measured approach.
