Europe’s smartphone market took a small step back in 2025, with overall shipments slipping by 1 percent. Even so, the competitive hierarchy stayed largely intact at the top—and the year delivered plenty of telling signals about what consumers are buying, how regulations are shaping product lineups, and which brands are gaining momentum.
Samsung finished 2025 as the clear number-one smartphone brand in Europe, shipping 46.6 million phones and capturing 35 percent of the region’s total market. That lead was solid, but the year wasn’t a straight climb. Samsung’s first half was marked by softer sales, partly because the Galaxy A0x series wasn’t available, removing a key entry-level volume driver from store shelves. The pace improved later in the year after Samsung brought in a more affordable Galaxy A16 to shore up the budget segment. The company also benefited from strong interest in the Galaxy A56, which ended 2025 as the best-selling smartphone model in Europe—an important win in a market where midrange value and carrier availability heavily influence demand.
Apple, meanwhile, posted one of its strongest European performances yet. The company closed the year with a record 27 percent market share after shipping 36.9 million iPhones, a 6 percent increase compared with 2024. Several models contributed to that growth, including the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone 16 e. The iPhone 16 e played a particularly strategic role by offsetting the sales gap created when Apple discontinued the iPhone 14 and earlier models in response to Europe’s USB-C regulation—effectively helping Apple maintain momentum while its lineup transitioned.
Behind the two leaders, Xiaomi held onto third place with 16 percent market share. However, it wasn’t a banner year for the brand in Europe: shipments dipped, with sales down by 1 percentage point to 21.8 million units. Motorola experienced an even sharper decline, falling 5 percent and ending the year with 7.7 million shipments, placing it fourth. Rounding out the top five, HONOR stood out as one of the winners, reaching 3.8 million units and strengthening its presence in a crowded field.
Zooming out, Europe accounted for 10.8 percent of global smartphone shipments in 2025, reinforcing the region’s importance even during a period of cooling demand. The year’s results also underline a few broader trends likely to matter going forward: the strength of affordable and midrange devices in Europe, the sales impact of lineup gaps in the entry tier, and the growing influence of regulations like USB-C on which models stay in circulation—and which get replaced.
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