Xiaomi overtakes Samsung: Most popular smartphone manufacturer in Europe

For a long time, the South Korean company Samsung dominated the European smartphone market as the most popular manufacturer. In the second quarter of 2021, however, there was a changing of the guard: The Chinese company Xiamoi is now enthroned at the top – but the growth of the Realme brand is also impressive.

Xiaomi: Market share rises to over 25 percent

As shown in the latest report from Strategy Analytics with regard to the development of the European smartphone market within the last 12 months, Xiaomi has emerged as the clear winner at the latest since Q2 2021 (between April and June).

Boosted by the release of the Mi 11 series in February this year, the company was able to sell around 12.7 million devices in Europe – more than any other manufacturer. That equates to a market share of 25.3 percent.

Compared to the same period last year, this corresponds to a growth of 67.1 percent. Samsung, on the other hand, has to accept a decline of 7.0 percent and currently ranks second with a market share of 24.0 percent. Apple lands in third place with approximately 9.6 million iPhones shipped.

Incredible growth at Realme

The most impressive growth, however, is put up by a completely different brand, Realme. Thanks to the release of the popular Realme 8 series or the Realme GT and Realme 8 5G that we tested most recently, the group comes up with a year-on-year growth of 1,800 percent.

With a current market share of 1.9 percent, they currently rank only fifth, but that could change as early as the next quarter. Oppo (fourth place) can also look back on growth of 180 percent.