European market will be pretty crowded in 2024

Canalys released research findings on European smartphone shipments for Q3 and the full year 2023. In Q4 2023, the market experienced a 3% year-on-year decline, totaling 37.8 million units.

Apple reclaimed the top position in the ranking table after trailing behind Samsung for seven consecutive quarters, with a 1% year-on-year growth to reach 12.4 million units. Meanwhile, Samsung secured the second spot, witnessing a 12% decline to 10.8 million units, although this was balanced by steady shipments of the S-series and mid-range A-series. Noteworthy is Samsung’s status as the largest vendor throughout 2023.

Following the top duo, Xiaomi claimed third place, despite experiencing a sales decline of 10%, with only 6.0 million units shipped. Behind Xiaomi were Motorola and Honor, closely followed by Google.

Motorola experienced the strongest growth in the market, thanks to a strategy targeting deals with mobile network operators. Vivo and Oppo are likely to work hard to recover their sales in Europe now that the dispute with Nokia is over.

HMD will face challenges in gaining market share, but their recently launched own sub-brand, specifically targeting European consumers and channel partners, could help. Additionally, Nothing is also entering the competition, aiming to capture sales in the quite large group of devices priced from below $200 to $399.

In Q4 2023, there was a notable surge in the share of high-end smartphones within the European market, reaching a record level. Nearly 40% of all smartphone shipments were priced at $800 or above.