IDC: Europeans buy less expensive smartphones

Europeans have recently started to buy less expensive smartphones, analyst firm IDC has calculated. The number of smartphones shipped on the continent fell a bit. Apple and Samsung achieved less market share, Huawei was on the rise.

The average price a European paid for a smartphone in Western Europe fell, while it remained the same in Eastern Europe, says IDC. In addition, a Western European still spends on average twice as much on a smartphone compared to someone from Eastern Europe.

Total smartphone shipments on the continent fell 2.7 percent to 53 million units, IDC says. Apple in particular lost market share; it delivered almost 23 percent fewer smartphones in the first months of 2019 compared to the same period in early 2018. The other big loser is HMD, which has a license to the Nokia brand name. Shipments of those smartphones fell even more by 32 percent.

Huawei was the big winner and grew by 66 percent to a position just behind market leader Samsung. The figures are from before the trade ban that the US imposed on US companies, preventing them from trading with Huawei. This may also affect deliveries in Europe, because smartphones can no longer receive Android upgrades here and new models may not be released due to a lack of Google services.

IDC does not expect 5g to convince many consumers in the coming years that a new smartphone is needed. For the time being, the range of 4G networks is much better than 5G, so many people do not see the need for an upgrade. That was different with the step from 3g to 4g; 4g not only offered much more capacity, but also better range than the old network due to the use of lower frequencies.