Samsung and Xiaomi dominate mobile phones in the Czech Republic. Predatory China is on the rise – SMARTmania.cz

• The GfK company published its survey of the Czech market in terms of the number of phones sold per manufacturer
• Samsung or the Redmi series from the Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi are doing very well
• Infinix has already reached the top five, followed by Honor and another Chinese – Vivo

What does the distribution of the smartphone market in the Czech Republic look like this year? According to a survey by the German analytical company GfK, Samsung holds the lead with an overview, which was the only one to surpass the target of 500,000 phones sold this year. However, predatory Chinese brands are scrambling to the front, especially one that is still quite unknown.

Samsung takes everything

Samsung can be considered the long-term winner on the Czech market. During this year, it has already sold over 787,000 mobile phones, and even though this is actually a slight decrease (8% compared to last year), the South Korean manufacturer still holds the world and Czech primacy. GfK calculated the specific share of the Czech market at 35.7%.

Xiaomi drags Redmi

At a good distance behind Samsung, there is another relatively traditional manufacturer, namely the Chinese Xiaomi. It sold 422,000 smartphones in the Czech Republic in the past part of 2023 and maintains a 26.2% market share. The year-on-year increase of roughly 2.5% is more or less insignificant.

Much more interesting is the division of forces in this manufacturer’s portfolio. The flagship Xiaomi brand, which practically only offers flagships such as the Xiaomi 13 or Xiaomi 13T, remains roughly below expectations with a 1.2% share. On the contrary, the proverbial torch is carried by the more affordable Redmi smartphone family, which boasts a 24.1% market share.

To clearly see how much of a difference it makes, the flagship phones sold less than 20,000 units from January to September, while the Redmi sold 388,000 units. For complete statistics, less than 15,000 units of the Poco series were sold.

Apple traditionally bronze

Apple does not have nearly as significant a role in the Czech market as elsewhere in Europe, especially in the West. GfK points to a 6.5% drop in year-on-year sales: while last year Apple managed to find owners for 372,000 phones in the Czech Republic from January to September, this year it is “only” less than 348,000. Even so, it should be noted that the total market share of 20.2% is still respectable. So every fifth phone sold is an iPhone.

Apple is followed by a slight drop in tens of thousands of units sold. The first after such a big fall is another very successful brand in the USA – Motorola. Originally a truly American brand, today owned by the Chinese Lenovo, it is constantly rising and moving forward in the Czech Republic.

In a year-on-year comparison, the number of units sold is about 10,000 better, and the balance is also improving in terms of market share. With a 4.8% share, it is actually the most successful manufacturer, if we do not count the holy trinity of Samsung-Xiaomi-Apple.

China is strengthening in the Czech Republic

And this is also partly evidenced by the strengthening tendencies of Chinese manufacturers on the domestic market. After Huawei’s problems, there was a space that was most used by Xiaomi, which was already in full swing. In addition to Motorola, another strong individual is Infinix, a relatively young manufacturer belonging to the Chinese holding Transsion.

According to the IDC agency, Transsion is the fifth most successful group in terms of global sales, in addition, it is on the verge of beating Oppo and becoming the global top four; and probably still this year. The most premium manufacturer from this holding is Infinix, which, after entering the Czech market exactly one year ago, managed to rise to fifth place in the ranking of the most successful manufacturers in the Czech Republic.

According to GfK, Infinix holds a share of 2.2%, for the past period of 2023, it sold almost 24 thousand phones, which can be calculated as a growth of about 7000% compared to last year. Similar numbers were also sought by Realme years ago, but in the last three months it has sold roughly half as many phones as Infinix.

But back to the Transsion holding star. Realme doesn’t have to perceive it as a big competitor. Rather, we are talking about Honor, which occupied the fifth place until recently and was overtaken by Infinix only in September of this year. In this short period, Honor managed to sell 4488 units while Infinix sold 35 units more. However, Honor also grew by more than 100% year-on-year, so this fight cannot be seen as insignificant.

Where is Google, Nokia or Huawei located?

We will close the front line of manufacturers with another Chinese, this time Vivo. It had a fantastic year last year, selling almost 90,000 smartphones from January to September 2022 alone. Unfortunately, the crisis took its toll mainly on him, GfK talks about a drop of 62% and the current market share is roughly 1.8%.

Manufacturers such as Doogee, OnePlus, Google, TCL or even Nokia are significantly lower. Surprisingly, Huawei boasts 321 phones sold for September 2023. This in itself seems quite tragic, but it is more than Sony, Nothing or Asus, including the ROG series, can show.

Author of the article

Jakub Fischer

Journalist, fan of modern technology, summer months and Asian food. I like Lynch movies, Pollock paintings, french house and Arsenal football club. In my spare time, I play PlayStation and go jogging.