Apple's European iPhone sales climb, but not enough to beat Samsung, Xiaomi

Xiaomi Mi 11i smartphones

New research figures show that Chinese smart phone manufacturer Xiaomi outsold Apple's iPhone in Europe in Q2 2021, and was beating Samsung by the end of the quarter.

The latest market research report from Counterpoint claims that Europe is seeing sales of smart phones generally recover from their coronavirus lows. Year on year figures for Q2 2021 were up 33%, but apart from the iPhone SE "bright spot" for Apple, Q2 2020 was the worst smartphone quarter for all vendors, in a decade.

As the market recovers, Counterpoint says that there have been changes in the top end with which firms are selling the most.

The ongoing decline of Huawei has seen OPPO, OnePlus, and realme, all gain sales. Most significantly, Xiaomi moved from third to second, overtaking Apple in terms of sales in Europe during the quarter.

"Xiaomi's news gets even better though," said Counterpoint associate director Jan Stryjak. " Samsung suffered significant supply issues in May and June due to Covid-19 related factory shutdowns in Vietnam, and this has started to impact sales."

European Smartphone Sales Q2 2021 (Source: Counterpoint)

"Samsung's sales in Europe declined by 20% in June 2021 compared to May 2021," he continued, "which opened the door for Xiaomi to become Europe's top-selling smartphone vendor by the end of the quarter."

Stryjak notes, however, that Samsung's problems "should be short-lived." He also notes that in Q2 2021, Apple was "midway between launches."

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38 Comments

igorsky

said about 2 years ago

Apple “beat” Xiaomi and Samsung a long time ago.

sflocal

said about 2 years ago

Here we go again. Selling a boatload of phones at razor-thin margins versus Apple selling less phones at a profit is not a success.

I'd rather sell a million phones with a 30% profit, than sell 100 million phones at 1% profit. Does this really have to be rehashed again?

GeorgeBMac

said about 2 years ago

sflocal said:

Here we go again. Selling a boatload of phones at razor-thin margins versus Apple selling less phones at a profit is not a success.
I'd rather sell a million phones with a 30% profit, than sell 100 million phones at 1% profit. Does this really have to be rehashed again?

Like PC's & washing machines, smart phones have become commodities -- with razor thin margins.

What sets Apple's phones (and stuff) apart is its ecosystem incorporating software, support, apps, integration, services, etc, etc etc...
... We'll never know what Apple's margins really are. To paraphrase an old commercial: "Only her cost accountant knows for sure".

avon b7

said about 2 years ago

sflocal said:

Here we go again. Selling a boatload of phones at razor-thin margins versus Apple selling less phones at a profit is not a success.
I'd rather sell a million phones with a 30% profit, than sell 100 million phones at 1% profit. Does this really have to be rehashed again?

As a business person you may want that but why on earth would you want that as a consumer?

Especially when most of Xiaomi's high end products are providing in demand phones and a plethora of services and thousands of ecosystem products offered through partners. Even if they do so on 'razor thin' phone margins.

Most of the other big Chinese brands also offer great phones too, along with huge ecosystems.

The issue has been expansion outside China. Until recently it was Huawei which ruled the roost outside China but for the last three years both Oppo and Xiaomi have been expanding rapidly in Europe. So much that Xiaomi is now becoming a go-to brand here and the Chinese brands are bringing more and more of their ecosystem partner products to the rest of the world.

Apple literally sat on most of its money for a decade. It really didn't do much with it. I'd rather they simply charged me less, which ironically, is what they've been doing over the last few years on many models which, ironically again, they needed to do as part of efforts to stimulate demand.

And let's not forget, every sale to Xiaomi means one less potential sale to Apple.

GeorgeBMac

said about 2 years ago

avon b7 said:

sflocal said:

Here we go again. Selling a boatload of phones at razor-thin margins versus Apple selling less phones at a profit is not a success.
I'd rather sell a million phones with a 30% profit, than sell 100 million phones at 1% profit. Does this really have to be rehashed again?

As a business person you may want that but why on earth would you want that as a consumer?

Especially when most of Xiaomi's high end products are providing in demand phones and a plethora of services and thousands of ecosystem products offered through partners. Even if they do so on 'razor thin' phone margins.

Most of the other big Chinese brands also offer great phones too, along with huge ecosystems.

The issue has been expansion outside China. Until recently it was Huawei which ruled the roost outside China but for the last three years both Oppo and Xiaomi have been expanding rapidly in Europe. So much that Xiaomi is now becoming a go-to brand here and the Chinese brands are bringing more and more of their ecosystem partner products to the rest of the world.

Apple literally sat on most of its money for a decade. It really didn't do much with it. I'd rather they simply charged me less, which ironically, is what they've been doing over the last few years on many models which, ironically again, they needed to do as part of efforts to stimulate demand.

And let's not forget, every sale to Xiaomi means one less potential sale to Apple.

Are you trying to equate Samsung's or Xiami's ecosystem to that of Apple?
I think they could better be compared to that of Windows: open architecture that has its advantages but also disadvantages such as less stability and less security and privacy.

But, in the end, like HP or Lenovo, they are selling a chunk of hardware, not a complete, integrated package of hardware, software and services.

(And, by that, I am not disparaging either one: both have advantages and disadvantages. They are just different approaches.)