Chinese manufacturers will compete with Samsung and Apple for the premium smartphone market in Europe

Chinese smartphone makers Realme, Oppo and Honor have stepped up efforts to strengthen their positions in Europe, challenging Samsung and Apple in the premium flagship device segment, writes the Financial Times. This segment is attractive to manufacturers because devices in it provide higher profitability.

One of the fastest growing smartphone makers in the world, Realme increased its sales in Europe by 275% from 2020 to 2023. As the continent’s fourth-largest smartphone vendor, Realme was the fastest to reach 100 million phone shipments globally in 2021 and was the fifth-fastest growing company to reach 200 million in sales last year, according to Tech Insights and Counterpoint Research. despite the slowdown in the smartphone market. Now the company has announced plans to increase market share in Europe over the next three to five years to more than 10% from the current 4%.

Francis Wong, Realme’s head of product marketing, said marketing spend to European customers loyal to Apple and Samsung was more than 10 times higher than in India, the company’s first major market after going independent in 2018. year. Wong noted that the European market is not as simple as it seemed. European consumers are less aware of Chinese brands and less concerned about value for money, which has hurt sales growth, he said.

In turn, Honor calls Europe the company’s most important market outside of China. In the second quarter, Honor overtook Samsung to take first place in foldable smartphone sales in Western Europe, having entered the top five in total European market share in the previous quarter.

Oppo also announced plans to invest in the European market in the long term. Billy Zhang, president of overseas marketing, sales and services, said that despite the difficulties, he hopes that the brand will gradually become familiar to local consumers. The company plans to launch its flagship Find X8 series here soon.

Xiaomi, long Europe’s best-selling phone maker behind Apple and Samsung, also increased its market share in premium models to 4.3% in the third quarter of 2024 from 2.7% a year earlier, according to IDC data.

Chinese brands argue that the prestige of having a strong presence in a mature market like Europe could help them expand into other high-end markets such as Japan, Australia and the US, providing a strong argument for operators to sell Chinese smartphones in these regions.