The smartphone market in Western Europe, stagnated by lack of hardware innovation, subsidy removal and rising smartphone prices, will be additionally affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and we forecast smartphone sales will go down -21% YoY to 107 million in 2020.

As a result, the smartphone replacement cycle in the region will lengthen from about 2 years in the mid-2010s, to 3.5 years in 2020. The market will rebound in 2021 driven by 5G adoption, but it will take years to recover to its pre-coronavirus levels.

Huawei’s market share in Western Europe is quickly shrinking following the US ban, leaving room for other OEMs to fill in the vacuum. Will Xiaomi, OPPO and OnePlus gain ground in this region? What price tiers of the market are different vendors targeting? Who will be the biggest winners and losers?

WSS clients can find the answers of all questions, and much more, in the full report here.