Huawei and Xiaomi had a stellar quarter in Europe, while the iPhone XS Max dominated the US market

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Huawei and Xiaomi had a stellar quarter in Europe, while the iPhone XS Max dominated the US market
After seeing Strategy Analytics, Counterpoint Research, and the International Data Corporation release various reports of late focusing on different aspects of the smartphone market during the final three months of 2018, it’s now time to hear what Kantar Worldpanel has to say on the same topic.

The self-described “global expert in shoppers’ behavior” has some interesting insight to provide into new industry trends across key regions like Western Europe, urban China, and the US.

The company’s fresh smartphone OS data compiled for the October - December 2018 timeframe reveals, for instance, that recent controversies and spying suspicions have had a minimal impact on Huawei’s European business.

The world’s second-largest smartphone vendor is thriving on the old continent, with both own-brand and Honor handsets selling like hotcakes outside of China too. The same goes for Xiaomi devices, which have recently expanded to major countries like Spain, Italy, and France, boosting the brand to the number four position in Europe’s top-selling chart.

Obviously, Samsung made its own big contribution to Android’s latest incredible achievement in Europe. The world-dominant operating system accounted for over 75 percent of Q4 2018 smartphone sales across the five biggest European markets, leaving a smaller and smaller slice of the pie for iOS.

But Apple’s market share increased slightly in the US, where the iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, and iPhone X were the most popular devices on store shelves, according to Kantar’s latest research.

That seems to contradict the findings of a CIRP survey last week, where the iPhone XR was ranked first among iOS devices for the quarter, followed by the iPhone XS Max. Either way, Apple had a solid year-ending three months stateside, although Android was still the nation’s preeminent software platform.

Intriguingly, the iPhone XS Max also performed rather well in urban China, ranking fourth overall, with the Honor 8X at the top of the chart. But the world’s largest smartphone market is still Apple’s biggest problem.

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