Xiaomi will dethrone Samsung as the largest smartphone seller in Spain in the second quarter

The smartphone brand Samsung, which has suffered greatly in 2021 by the supply crisis, will again overtake the South Korean Samsung at the beginning of the second quarter of 2022 as the number one seller of smart phones in Spain, according to the forecasts of consultant Counterpoint Research in an interview with OKDIARIO.

The problems in the supply of components that have weighed down Xiaomi could continue during this first quarter of the year, but it is expected that after the launch of new devices, especially from low-end brands Redmi, will regain the scepter of leadership in Spain, according to Jan Stryjak, associate director of the firm. However, Samsung is succeeding with its popular A-series phones, so “it will be a disputed battle,” he warns.

The war on the smartphone market in Spain is intense and last year there were several changes in the first position of the seller ranking. Xiaomi overtook Samsung in March 2021, but Samsung snatched the throne just a few months later, in September. The Chinese brand began to experience a shortage of parts for its devices in the second half of last year and has yet to overcome these difficulties. These bottlenecks are expected to persist during the first quarter of 2022, but some recovery should be seen in the second half of the year, Stryjak predicts.

With data from December 2021, Samsung captured 34% of sales, while Xiaomi treasured 31%, significantly below the 41% it touched in June 2021, just as the South Korean company was dealing with the most serious supply problems due to the closure of factories in Vietnam as a result of the pandemic.  However, the situation quickly recovered.

“Due to its size and span, Samsung seems to be able to manage its supply chain more efficiently than Xiaomi, for example,” Stryjak points out. “Xiaomi is not yet the size of Samsung and its supply chain was strained due to Covid-19 restrictions. This had a major impact at the end of 2021,” he explains.

Spain is a market in which the consumer looks at prices a lot and that’s why it’s key for brands like Xiaomi, while more expensive ones like Apple they find more obstacles to achieve the sales they register in countries such as United Kingdom and Germany. The US technology company is at a significant distance in terms of smartphone sales, reaching only 17% of total sales in the Spanish market as of December 2021, placing itself as the third in discord. Despite this, Apple has experienced a rebound in its market share in recent months-in August the percentage was 10%- thanks to the launch of the iPhone 13 and attractive promotions of older models, in particular the iPhone 12notes Stryjak.

Although this expert does not see a clear answer to the lesser success of Apple devices in Spain, he points out that average income is lower than other Western European countries: GDP per capita was approximately $ 27,000 compared to $ 32,000 in Italy, $ 39,000 in France, $ 41,000 in the United Kingdom and $ 42,000 in Germany.

Spanish take longer to change phone

As a result, Spanish consumers tend to keep their phones somewhat more than the European average for price-related reasons, Stryjak adds. “They replace their average smartphones approximately every two and a half years. In comparison, the British buy a new smartphone much more often, keeping their devices on average less than two years”, details this expert.

In Spain, they were sold in 2021 12.1 million smartphones, 4% less that in the previous year, mainly because, although 2020 was heavily affected by Covid-19, the recovery was not as solid as expected due to the lack of components, Stryjak argues.

All in all, assuming the supply crisis will end by the middle of this year, there should be “a slight increase” in smartphone sales in Spain in 2022, he adds.

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