Samsung had already been the market leader for seven or eight years but had never seen an average market share of more than 50%. It reached this milestone after accounting for more than half of the sales on the market in 11 of the 12 months of last year and in September even delivered almost 60% of the smartphones purchased in Romania. The only month with less than 50% sales was December, according to the data available to ZF.
Tiberiu Dobre, head of the IM Division of Samsung Romania & Bulgaria explained at the ZF Digital ’19 event that the trend was because of the mid-range phones, which generate the highest sales volume, as well as of the growth on the premium segment.
“The high market share comes from the mid-range segment, where the biggest sales volumes are.”
In all, sales of smartphones reached 3.7 milion to 3.8 milion units in Romania in 2019, the same as in 2018, the sources said. The market therefore stopped at the record number of units set in 2018. It did go up in value, though at a single-digit rate in 2019. Under the circumstances, the average price of a smartphone stood at more than 1,000 lei (over EUR200), almost double the 2014 level.
The top three brands on the market, Samsung, Huawei and Apple accounted for more than 83% of the sales of smartphones in 2019, compared with some 75% in 2018.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)