This year, Apple lost the title of the second largest smartphone manufacturer to the Chinese company Xiaomi, dropping to third place in the market. But if we consider the segment of premium smartphones separately, then Apple remains the undisputed leader, which controls more than half of the market. This is evidenced by a new report from the research company Counterpoint Research.
According to analysts Counterpoint Research, Apple’s share in the premium smartphone segment has grown by 9 percentage points over the year. So, if in the second quarter of 2020 it owned 48% of the global smartphone market worth more than $ 400, then in the second quarter of 2021 the share increased to 57%. And speaking of the segment called “ultra-premium” by analysts, which includes devices priced at $ 800 and up, here almost three-quarters of sales in the last quarter came from iPhones. Interestingly, a year ago, Apple’s share there was 54%. Analysts say this success is due to last year’s flagship iPhone 12 series, especially the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, which have enjoyed consistently strong sales throughout the year.
Apple ranks first in the premium segment, far behind its Android rivals. Thus, Samsung, the closest competitor to Apple, lost 5% of the market in a year. If in the second quarter of last year the share of smartphones of the South Korean brand accounted for 22%, then in the second quarter of this year this figure fell to 17%. Interestingly, despite the decline in market share, Samsung managed to increase sales of its premium smartphones by 13%.
The three leaders in the premium smartphone market are still the Chinese company Huawei. True, due to problems associated with the strengthening of US sanctions against Huawei, the brand’s share fell sharply over the year from 17% to 6%. About 6% of the segment is now occupied by Xiaomi, whose share did not exceed 4% a year ago. Another Chinese tech giant owns about 5% of the market. We are talking about OPPO, which has increased its share by 3 percentage points over the year.
In conclusion, Counterpoint Research analysts announced their forecast for the second half of 2021. They speculate that Samsung will be able to reclaim a share of the premium device market thanks to the recent launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 foldable smartphones. smartphone manufacturer in June 2021. But whether the announcement of the iPhone 13 series, which does not seem to be such a major update compared to the iPhone 12, will affect the dominant position of Apple is still unclear.
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