According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, Europe smartphone shipments grew a strong +14% YoY to 50.1 million units in Q2 2021, recovering from the Covid crash of 2020.

The highlight of the quarter is Xiaomi emerging as Europe’s number one vendor by smartphone shipments for the first time ever. We estimate Xiaomi shipped a record 12.7 million units in Europe to overtake long-time leader Samsung. Xiaomi has seen high demand in Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Italy, and elsewhere. European customers are eager for Xiaomi’s Mi and Redmi series of feature-rich, value smartphones.

Samsung shipments dipped -7% YoY to 12.0 million units in Europe in Q2 2021. Samsung is performing well with new 5G models from the Galaxy A series, but it faces increasing competition from Apple in the high-end and the Chinese vendors in the low-end, and it has failed to take full advantage of Huawei's demise in Europe.

Apple posted a strong quarter, growing +16% YoY and shipping an estimated 9.6M iPhones in Europe during Q2 2021. The iPhone 12 range continues to resonate with loyal Apple fans who were overdue to replace their aging 4G models. OPPO captured 6% marketshare on the back of its popular A and Reno series. Rounding out the European top 5, Realme had a breakthrough quarter with the newly launched Realme 8 series, shipping 1.9 million smartphones in the region in the quarter.