Xiaomi surged past its rivals to top the European smartphone ranking for the first time in the second quarter of 2021, according to data from Strategy Analytics. The Chinese vendor posted a 67.1 percent year on year rise in shipments to 12.7 million in the April to June period for a 25.3 percent market share, surpassing longtime leader Samsung with 12.0 million (-7.0%) for a 24.3 percent share and Apple with 9.6 million (+15.7%) for a 19.2 percent share. Oppo and Realme rounded out the top five with shares of 5.6 percent and 3.8 percent respectively.
The report said Xiaomi had a particularly successful quarter in Russia, Ukraine, Spain and Italy due to the popularity of its Mi and Redmi series of smartphones. The company's European performance helped it jump into the global top 2 for the first time ever, according to a separate Strategy Analytics report, with the vendor shipping 52.8 million units worldwide in Q2 for a 16.8 percent market share.
In Europe, the researcher said smartphone shipments as a whole posted strong 14 percent year on year growth to 50.1 million units in the second quarter, driven by the ongoing economic recovery, a healthy demand from consumers with aging devices and more appealing value-priced 5G devices.
The report added that Samsung is performing well with new 5G models from the Galaxy A series, but has failed to take full advantage of Huawei's demise in Europe and is facing competition from Apple in the high-end and the Chinese vendors in the low-end.
