Debut for Russia - how Chinese smartphones knocked Samsung and Apple out of the market

Ekaterina Maximova

GS Group investment and industrial holding provides data on the import of mobile phones to Russia by the end of 2022 in its analytical report.

Novye Izvestia got acquainted with the document. 

At the end of the year, the share of smartphones has not changed and is 78%, but in absolute terms, the volume has fallen by 22%. Russians got 27.5 million new smartphones last year. The absolute leaders - Xiaomi, Realme, Samsung, Tecno and Apple - accounted for 21.4 million units (or 78% of the smartphone market).

Imports of push-button phones in 2022 decreased by 19% (to 7.9 million units). 

Chinese "tubes" are now the most popular smartphone among Russians. So, Xiaomi's market share is 30%. At the same time, Xiaomi's shipments decreased by 19% (from 10.3 million units in 2021 to 8.3 million units in 2022). Realme imports increased by 78% over the year (up to 4.3 million units).  

In general, by the end of last year, the share of Chinese brands increased to 75%. This is a debut for the Russian smartphone market. 

But the supply of Samsung and Apple, the combined share of which was 45% before the SVO, has sharply decreased. Samsung showed a three-fold drop (up to 3.7 million units) and the company's share in the Russian market fell from 32% to 14%. 

iPhone shipments fell by half (-57%), 2.1 million units were purchased. As a result, the "apple" share decreased to 7.7%. And this is the lowest level of the company in Russia over the past two years.  But Apple apologists are not giving up: the fleet of active Apple smartphones is 12.5 million units. And this is the third place in Russia, that is, every eighth call in the country is made using an iPhone. 

 "The structure of price segments has changed a lot: the share of the lower segment has grown and the premium segment has shrunk. At the same time, all three segments decreased in absolute numbers. By the end of 2022, the share of the budget segment (smartphones up to 10 thousand rubles) increased from 32% to 39%, and the volume decreased by 11.2 million units to 10.8 million units (a decline of 4%). The average price segment (smartphones priced from 10 to 30 thousand rubles) it lost 4 million units, its volume fell by 23% (from 17.2 million to 13.2 million units). As a result, the middle segment still occupies half of the market (48%). The share of the upper segment (smartphones priced from 30 thousand rubles) fell from 19% to 13%", - GS Group said.  

How much does the phone costThe turnover of the Russian smartphone market by the end of 2022 amounted to 529 billion rubles.

This is minus 35 percent when compared with 2021. 

"For obvious reasons, Apple's turnover fell by half, and Samsung's by 2.5 times. However, at the end of the year, Apple remains the leader in turnover with a share of 31.8%, and Samsung ranks third with a share of 14.5%. Xiaomi came in second place with a share of 21.5%. Also, Realme with a share of 12% and Tecno with a share of 5.3% became the leaders. Huawei brand also showed a high share in the market turnover - more than 5% of the market in 2022. Other smartphone brands in total occupy less than 9% of the market turnover", - GS Group reports.

Over the past year in Russia, the average price of smartphones fell by 18% - from 23.3 thousand to 19.2 thousand rubles. But there is no reason to be happy.

"The explanation is extremely simple. During 2022, the supply of expensive Samsung and Apple smartphones has significantly decreased, and consequently, their share in the market turnover. And the supply of budget smartphones from Tecno, Itel and other brands, on the contrary, has increased. Therefore, according to all the laws of mathematics, the weighted average price of smartphones in the Russian market has decreased. And this is a temporary situation. In 2023, Chinese brands, having mastered the Russian market well, will begin to raise prices, as well as produce more expensive models. Therefore, the average price in the smartphone market will grow", - is the forecast from analysts of GS Group holding.

Attention, laptops will also become more expensiveAs reported to Novye Izvestia in the Group of companies F+ tech | Marvel by the end of 2022, 3.2 million laptops were sold in Russia for a total of 195.5 billion rubles.

The laptop market fell by 13.5% over the year!

During 2022, the share of manufacturers who announced their withdrawal from the Russian market gradually decreased. The share of Asus fell from 19.3% in January 2022 to 8% in December, HP laptops "sank" from 21% to 7.7%, Acer sales decreased from 13.2% to 8%. Their place was taken by other brands, for example, MSI, which increased its share from 4.4% to 25% over the year%

The fall of the laptop market by the end of 2022, explains F+ tech | Marvel, is largely due to a shortage of components and a shortage of goods in a certain period.  "In 2023, the trend should not continue, as the market has adjusted to new realities and can reach a cruising sales speed already in the first quarter of 2023," the Department of corporate Communications of the F+ tech Group clarified | Marvel".

GC analysts are confident that a serious reduction in the cost of laptops should not be expected.  Even against the background of information that warehouses are overflowing with equipment. 

"Even if someone now has surplus equipment in warehouses, it is unlikely that the buyer will see a collapse in prices. The dollar is getting more expensive again, which means prices are likely to go up," summed up in "F+ tech | Marvel".