These new research papers are focused on Europe and the US, ranking the former's top ten and the latter's top five vendors for the July - September 2021 timeframe while naturally also tracking the year-on-year evolution of all major smartphone brands, many of which defied the general chip shortage issue to improve their figures.
Almost everybody is a winner stateside
Although the US smartphone market can obviously have only one gold medalist, the nation's number two, three, and five players also increased their regional share of shipments during the year's third calendar quarter compared to the same period in 2020.
In fact, OnePlus might be responsible for the most impressive growth of all, wrapping up the top five with a relatively small 3 percent slice of the pie after accounting for... 0 percent of US smartphone sales back in Q3 2020.
Keep in mind that the company has been shipping Android handsets stateside for a fairly long time, cracking the local carrier channel with T-Mobile's help prior to 2020 as well. But it wasn't until the low-cost Nord N200 5G saw daylight that the brand started to become relevant, and despite supply issues, expectations are that the numbers will continue to grow now that OnePlus phones are available at Walmart.
Apple, Samsung, and Motorola, meanwhile, are likely to maintain their spots on the podium, with the latter two in particular benefitting from LG's global exit.
Despite the early popularity of the iPhone 13 family, Samsung managed to close the gap to Apple thanks to its own successful launch of new high-end (foldable) models, as well as the affordable Galaxy A32 5G mid-ranger.
Of course, the iPhone 13 quartet will have way more time in Q4 to outsell the Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3, thus contributing to an undoubtedly higher advantage than seven percentage points for Apple over Samsung.
In case you're wondering, the Moto G Play, G Power, and 5G-enabled G Stylus were Motorola's most popular devices, while TCL (which also includes the Alcatel brand) was the only top company that couldn't gain from LG's misery.
Xiaomi and Apple are closing in on Samsung in Europe
Water is wet, Apple is king in the US, and Samsung rules the old continent. Nothing out of the ordinary there, but it's definitely worth highlighting that Europe's Q3 2021 champion was also the only one of the top eight vendors that saw its numbers shrink from Q3 2020.
In second and third place, Xiaomi and Apple posted healthy year-on-year growth of 51 and 24 percent respectively, while Oppo (including OnePlus), Realme, and Vivo knocked the ball right out of the proverbial park with incredible gains of 112, 160, and 238 percent (!!!) respectively.
Motorola and Nokia can be pleased with their latest European results as well, which is unsurprisingly not true for Honor and Huawei.
Circling back to the top of the table, we should point out that Xiaomi actually joined Samsung in reporting a regional decline compared to Q2 2021, so in a way, Apple can be considered the big winner of the quarter on the old continent in addition to the US (and China and India).
The iPhone 13 series seems to be significantly more successful than the iPhone 12 lineup in Europe already, which puts Apple in an ideal position for a "record-breaking" holiday quarter around those parts... if the company can keep up with demand.
Unfortunately for the Cupertino-based tech giant, that may prove to be a very serious challenge difficult to overcome just by reducing iPad production in favor of the newest 5G-capable iPhones.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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