A new crop of Chinese smartphone vendors is conquering Europe, while taking advantage of Huawei’s decline. Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Realme and OnePlus together almost quadrupled their shipments in the two-year period from Q1 2019 to Q1 2021 in the old continent.
Chinese vendors usually enter the European market through its eastern border, before moving to the west about a year later. Total marketshare of the five Chinese “newcomers” in Central & Eastern Europe has been about 10%-15% higher than in Western Europe, but the gap is likely to decrease with time, when the companies build a better brand recognition in Western Europe.
Smartphone wholesale average selling piece (ASP) in Central & Eastern Europe in 2020 was around the US$200 mark, which is a sweet spot for the Chinese OEMs. Four out of the five Chinese vendors mentioned above sell about half of their volumes in the mid-tier (US$100-190) segment.
The outlier here is OnePlus, which sells almost three-quarters of its smartphones in the premium (>US$300) price tier. That also explains the reason why OnePlus is the only one from the five vendors to have a bigger presence in Western Europe than in Central & Eastern Europe.
Despite the great success, there are still challenges the Chinese “newcomers” will need to be aware of.
Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) clients can find the answers of all questions, and much more, in the full report here.
