The Europe smartphone market declined by 23% year-over-year (YoY) to 38 million units in quarter one (Q1) of 2023; the lowest quarterly total since Q2 2012, reports Counterpoint Research.
Samsung maintained leadership despite a 27% YoY shipment decrease, thanks largely to a relatively successful launch of its latest flagship Galaxy S23 series. Second place Apple gained share slightly YoY, but this was more due to it declining less (21%) than most other vendors, according to Counterpoint.
Apple now has 26% of the European smartphone market. That compares to 25% in the first quarter of 2022.
China-based Xiaomi was the only major vendor to grow YoY, due to a recovery from a poor Q1 2022.
“The cost-of-living crisis continued to pour misery onto European consumers, resulting in a tough start to 2023,” says Counterpoint Research Associate Director Jan Stryjak. “… We predicted the difficult conditions would get worse before they got better, and this was borne-out by the worst quarter for smartphone shipments we’ve seen in Europe in over a decade. However, we remain optimistic that the economic pressures should start easing in the next few quarters, boosting consumer confidence and leading to a better end of the year.”
