Recent report peg Android to be a big winner again with 72.4 percent market share during the three months ending April, with the smaller brands carving out a growing slice of market share in the top five European markets.
Kantar Worldpanel’s latest report points to the increase in fragmentation in the European market, with Huawei and Wiko reporting massive gains across the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
According to the report, in the EU5, Android’s market share rose by 1.7 percent to 72.4 percent, which BlackBerry lost keeping just 0.8 percent of its share. Apple’s iOS with slight improvements stood at 17.5 percent, Windows Phone climbed 1.6 percent to 8.4 percent market share,
In the US, Android’s share increased by 7.3 percent to 59.1 percent of the market, while iOS saw a dip by 6.8 percent to 34.6 percent. Microsoft’s WP also slid 0.9 percent to just 4.7 percent, while BlackBerry slightly improved its share to reach 1 percent of the market.
In China, Android achieved its biggest growth of 7.9 percent to grab the highest market share of 79.8 percent, while iOS and Windows Phone dropped by 6.2 percent and 1.4 percent respectively. BlackBerry was totally wiped out from the market after a 0.3 percent dip.
Huawei reported shipments jump by 123 percent over the period managing to grab 3 percent market share, while Wiko accounted for almost one in ten smartphone sales (8 percent) in France. Sony and Motorola also continued to resurge in Europe, challenging Apple and Samsung.
Kantar Strategic Insight Director Dominic Sunnebo, commenting on the figures, claimed that consumers were “starting to realise the true cost of handsets”.
“As a result, they are shopping around to find cheaper alternatives,” Sunnebo said. “This shift in behaviour plays directly into the hands of lesser known brands like Huawei and Wiko.”
In China, Xiaomi reportedly “outsold” Samsung, for the second time, thanks to the RedMi smartphone – the top selling smartphone in the market. Kantar’s report notes that 41 percent of RedMi buyers were first-time smartphone buyers, while 23 percent were former Samsung users.
Perhaps the most amazing part of this news is – Blackberry actually increased its share in the US!