It’s that time of the… quarter again, statistics lovers, and after seeing Apple dominate both the Chinese smartphone market and the global mobile industry in its entirety during the final three months of 2021, you will certainly not be surprised to hear that iPhones have also reigned supreme in the same period in the US.
One heavyweight champion, several improving lightweights
In second place, Samsung enjoyed year-over-year growth of 11 percent, which probably would have been a more impressive result if it wasn’t for OnePlus and Motorola’s much greater progress. Of course, that’s not an entirely fair comparison given that the regional silver medalist was still capable of easily fending off its smaller rivals, accounting for a solid 24 percent of US sales in Q4.
In fifth place, OnePlus somehow managed to boost its quarterly sales numbers by an outstanding 524 percent (!!!) from Q4 2020, which still barely got the brand to 2 percent market share. That absolutely ginormous year-over-year progress was primarily owed to the mid-range Nord family, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the mainstream popularity (or lack thereof) of the Chinese company’s high-end products stateside.
Just a blip on Apple’s radar
That includes looking at it from a year-over-year growth perspective, which does provide a slightly rosier picture than the aforementioned 1 percent share, with said surge standing at a decent-sounding 56 percent.
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are no smash hits.
But the fact of the matter is that the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro enjoyed a much stronger marketing effort than 2020’s lone Pixel 5 model, and at least for the time being, the sales progress doesn’t seem to reflect the presumably increased spending. It probably didn’t help that the Pixel 5a 5G mid-ranger came out a little too late, not to mention its terribly limited availability.
After all, the only reason why overall sales in the region were “flat” instead of declining amid supply constraints, delayed launches, and COVID-related in-store restrictions was that carriers kept their holiday promotions as “strong” as ever.
Along with Tracfone and Boost Mobile, T-Mo crucially contributed to Alcatel (or rather TCL)’s somewhat surprisingly strong position in the manufacturer rankings. Yes, the two related brands are ahead of both OnePlus and Google, once again highlighting the importance and relevance of ultra-affordable phones sold through “traditional” retail channels like physical carrier stores.
