With the proliferation of low-cost Chinese smartphone brands, Samsung has been ceding market share in many regions around the world in recent years. At least in Europe, the Korean company seems to have finally bucked this trend by gaining substantial market share in Q2 2019, according to the quarterly smartphone shipment data from Canalys.
As per the latest numbers, Samsung crossed 40% market share in Europe in Q2, making it the company’s best performance in five years. It shipped over 18.3 million smartphones, 12 million of which were the recent Galaxy A series devices. Overall, the shipments were up by 20% from the same period last year, helping the company retain its position as the largest vendor in the region by a huge margin.
Canalys attributes Samsung’s strong performance to its recent Galaxy A series models and Huawei’s political troubles. The Galaxy A10, A20e, A40, and A50 were the company’s bestsellers and accounted for more shipments than the entire portfolio of any other vendor in the region. At 3.2 million units, the Galaxy A50 (review) emerged as the top seller for the quarter, followed by the Galaxy A40 (review) at 2.2 million units.
Xiaomi was the biggest gainer in the quarter
Huawei retained the second spot in the table, but its total shipments fell by 16% to 8.5 million units. Apple, which came in third, also suffered a 17% drop in shipments to 6.4 million units in Q2 2019. Xiaomi was the biggest gainer in the quarter with shipments going up by 48%, netting it a market share of 9.6%. The total shipments remained flat at 45.1 million units as against the 45.2 million units in Q2 2018.
Canalys says Samsung is keen on winning back market share even if it means sacrificing margins. The strategy seems to be working in Europe so far. The worrying sign for the company, however, is that Xiaomi is gaining ground in the region, which could put further pressure on its profits. Moreover, when Xiaomi competes with Samsung directly, the former fares well in market share due to its strong budget portfolio. We have to wait and see if the same happens in Europe as well.
