Samsung has been under fierce competition from Apple and Xiaomi in the smartphone segment. The South Korean firm had just three devices in the list of top ten best-selling smartphones globally in terms of revenue. In developing markets like India, Samsung has dropped back to second place after Xiaomi, but there's some good news.
The South Korean firm has seen its smartphone shipments rise in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) during Q1 2020. Samsung shipped 30.6 million Galaxy smartphones during the quarter, acquiring a 32.8% share of the market. That's a growth of 34.7% compared to 22.7 million units it had shipped one year ago. In Q1 2020, Samsung's market share in the EMEA region was 29.5%.
Xiaomi is catching up fast with Samsung, though. The Chinese smartphone brand shipped 14.4 million smartphones during the same period, and that's a whopping 95.8% year-over-year growth. Transsion, which sells smartphones under brands like Tecno, Itel, and Infinix, had an impressive showing, too, shipping 14 million smartphones with year-over-year growth of 62.4%.
Apple, which shipped 13.3 million smartphones in the EMEA region during Q1 2021, had a 33.6% growth. That's slightly slower when compared to Samsung, but Apple's profit margins are way higher than any other brand. OPPO entered the top five rankings as it shipped 4.7 million smartphones during the first quarter of this year, showcasing a 62.3% year-over-year growth.
Samsung doesn't have plans to launch a Galaxy Note series smartphone in the second half of this year, and it will be interesting to see if the company can continue to grow in Q3 and Q4 of 2021.
