Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
We bet you can't guess the top five NA, EU, and Asia smartphone brands (infographic)
- Counterpoint Research has revealed the top five brands in five regions for Q3 2018.
- Samsung was the only brand to feature in all five regions, with Apple and HUAWEI following behind.
- The top three players in Asia were separated by just one percent.
Chinese and global smartphone shipments tend to get the lion’s share of our coverage, but other regions can make for some very interesting reading as well.
Don’t believe me? Well, Counterpoint Research has released a rather insightful infographic, detailing the top five smartphone manufacturers in each region for Q3 2018. And there are some interesting brands in the top five…
Read: Move over, notch — 2019 will be the year of display hole cameras
One surprise (at least to this writer) is LG cracking the number three and four spots in North America and Latin America respectively. The company has seen better days but it’s encouraging to see the brand maintaining market-share in a few regions. Another surprising entry was Xiaomi, coming in at number four in Asia and Europe. Its high placement in Asia is to be expected (due to sales performance in China and India), but the company only made its way to Europe last year.
We also see Alcatel on the list, managing to hit number five in North America and Europe — it actually beat LG, Lenovo/Motorola, and Sony in Europe, which is no small feat.
The MEA (Middle East and Africa) region hosts another surprise as we see Tecno and sister company iTel in third and fourth respectively. The two firms, along with sister company Infinix, are all owned by Transsion Holdings and have delivered popular devices in the likes of Nigeria for a while now.
The intensity of competition in Asia is also noteworthy, as the top five are separated by six percent, while the top three brands in the region are only separated by one percent.
In terms of the big winners here, Samsung was the only brand to feature in every region. It occupied the number one or two spot in each region, with the exception of Asia (number five). Meanwhile, Huawei and Apple were next in line, listed as top five brands in four out of five regions. HUAWEI was absent in North America — ostensibly due to the U.S. effectively barring sales — while Apple was missing in Asia (presumably due to much cheaper brands driving volume).
Counterpoint Research noted that while HMD Global didn’t crack the top five in any region, it saw the fastest growth of any brand during the quarter (77 percent). Other brands missing from the list include Asus, Google, HTC, Sony, and ZTE.
With all of this being said, do bear in mind that Counterpoint Research is only one firm and its results may differ from other smartphone-tracking companies. Still, what do you make of the findings? Let us know in the comments.
NEXT: Why there are no 5G modems inside next-generation SoCs