Huawei maintains second place in European smartphone market despite trade ban

Samsung and Xiaomi have recently grown in the European smartphone market, while Apple and Nokia licensee HMD Global have lost ground. Despite the trade ban by US companies, Huawei retained its second place.

Huawei delivered around 11.6 million smartphones in Europe during the summer, Canalys has calculated. This is approximately the same as in the same period last year. Compared to the spring, deliveries grew again, although Huawei had a peak at the beginning of the year. The US companies’ trade ban with Huawei went into effect in May and from then on, the manufacturer was unable to release new models with Google services.

The smartphone market in Europe grew by 8 percent. Samsung in particular benefited from this: the market leader improved its position and delivered four million smartphones more than in the same period last year. Xiaomi delivered 2.3 million more smartphones and reached 5.5 million. Apple’s market share fell slightly.

According to Canalys, Chinese manufacturers see the European market as promising, because a relatively large part of the deliveries goes to individual sales. As a result, brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo and daughter brand Realme and Vivo have focused more on Europe.