
Smartphone market in Europe slips 2%, premium phones on the rise
Analysts reveal that vendors sold 32.4 million units, down from 33.1 million in Q1 2024, but about 32% of those sales were premium phones priced above €800. Of course, Apple and Samsung are the biggest winners here.
Apple scored a 10% increase in total sales year-on-year, securing second place with a 22% market share, while Samsung grew less than 1%. Nonetheless, Samsung sits atop the charts with a 37% market share and reached its highest-ever average sales price on the Old Continent.
Xiaomi takes the third spot with a 16% market share and a 2% decline in sales due to weak demand for budget devices. This marks the company's twentieth consecutive quarter in the top five in Europe.
Motorola and Google round out the top five. Q1 2025 was Google's first quarter in the top five in Europe, recording 0.9 million shipments and an outstanding 43% growth in the region.
Looking ahead, analysts believe that the strong demand for Samsung and Apple premium devices will continue and squeeze out the competition, while European regulations such as eco-design and battery directives will continue to create unfavorable market conditions for low-end devices. In fact, the forecast is a 3% decline in sales for 2025 with a modest recovery of 1% in 2026. Vendors will be forced to improve efficiency and profitability in the region to stay afloat.
Source
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Phone Arena
37 minutes ago
- Phone Arena
Intel overplayed its hand and now it wants to rebuild
Intel has been through the wringer lately. First, Apple dropped its chips in favor of the M-series. Then AMD started chipping away at its lead in the PC space. And now Arm-based rivals and AI giants like Nvidia are piling on the pressure. The result? A company that's lost serious ground and is now being forced to reinvent itself – its latest earnings report for Q2 2025, Intel revealed a massive shake-up that makes one thing very clear: this isn't just a rough patch. It's a full-blown new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Intel is slashing costs and cutting loose anything that doesn't serve its core mission. That means thousands of jobs are being cut, major manufacturing projects are being scrapped or delayed and the company is slimming down to focus on fewer, smarter ended 2024 with nearly 110,000 employees. By the end of 2025, it expects to be down to just 75,000. That's roughly a quarter of the company – gone. And it's not the first time: Intel already cut 15,000 jobs last year. – David Zinsner, Intel CFO, July 2025 Intel is also walking away from high-profile projects it once hyped up – including the chip factory in Germany and an assembly plant in Poland. Both had been stuck in limbo since last year, and now they're officially off the table. The $28 billion Ohio factory? Delayed again. It was supposed to open in 2025, then pushed back earlier this year, and now it's on pause once more. Intel says its previous investments were 'unwise and excessive,' admitting that it overbuilt in a market that didn't deliver the demand it hoped for. – Lip-Bu Tan, Intel CEO, July 2025 So, Tan is now taking a more conservative approach: no new capacity unless the orders are already there. In other words, Intel isn't going to build chips and hope someone buys them. It's only going to build what it knows it can Tan isn't just making high-level strategy changes. He's stepping in to approve every chip design himself – yes, really. The former Cadence CEO has a long background in chip design, and he's already making moves to fix issues like Intel's recent missteps with multi-threading capabilities. The goal is to return to a 'first time right' mindset – fewer design mistakes, tighter execution, and a more focused roadmap. If Tan can pull that off, future Intel chips might actually get more competitive again. Meanwhile, Intel's Core Ultra (Series 2) with vPro continues to expand, delivering powerful, efficient and secure performance for desktops and laptops. | Image credit – Intel So, how does this all affect the laptops you'll be shopping for in the next year or two? In the short term, you might see fewer new Intel chips, slower refresh cycles, or even some gaps in the lineup as the company consolidates and retools. Meanwhile, competitors like Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm will likely keep charging ahead – especially as Arm-based and AI-focused chips keep gaining traction. But if Intel's reset works, we could be looking at even better chips down the road – ones that are more efficient, more reliable, and designed with fewer compromises. Switch to a 2-month Total 5G or 5G+ plan with Total Wireless and score this foldable deal. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase Check Out The Offer


Phone Arena
2 hours ago
- Phone Arena
macOS 26 features that make Windows 11 look outdated
macOS 26 is a big, exciting refresh for Macs and MacBooks — and it's coming this fall. The update brings a beautiful new design called Liquid Glass and a bunch of small but smart changes that make the whole system feel fresh and of the coolest parts? macOS 26 works even better with your iPhone, making everything feel more connected. It's a great example of how smooth Apple's ecosystem can be.I used to lean toward Windows a few years back – but these days, it's starting to feel a bit behind compared to what Apple's been doing. Here's why. One of the biggest changes in macOS 26 is the new Liquid Glass design, which streamlines the experience with other Apple devices. Now, the dock, sidebars, and toolbars are redesigned and feature the same translucent aesthetic. Thanks to this new look, more content is shown on the screen without things getting too cluttered. There are also rounded elements and dimensionality, which make the OS look more modern. You can customize the control center in the same way as you can on an also get to choose between dark and light mode, an all-clear icon, and a dock theme, and you can even customize folder icons. On the other hand, Windows 11 does feel a bit cluttered and clunky. The Liquid Glass look on the Mac manages to make it feel more modern and color-coordinated around the translucency theme, while on Windows 11, each element seems to have its own look, in a way. Yes, you can set Dark/Lite and then a main color and the whole system changes, but we have these legacy menus, due to the way Windows is designed (on top of older versions of the same OS to an extent). These legacy menus look drastically different with the new layout. In my opinion, Windows has a lot of things going on at the same time, and I can sometimes feel drowned in all the forced colors and shade differences. The Phone app on a Mac. | Image Credit - Apple MacOS 26 brings the Phone app to the Mac. This allows for a more streamlined experience between your iPhone and MacBook. You can access recent calls and contacts synced from your iPhone, and make calls as well. This also includes the new iOS 26 features Hold Assist and Call Screening on the Mac, which makes things so much more convenient. Windows 11 does have the option for you to install the Phone Link app, and the connection between your laptop and phone is made via Bluetooth. Of course, you have to fiddle with settings to ensure smoothness, enabled 2FA, link the phone to your account, log in multiple times on both the phone and the app (and hope nothing times out while you do that) and pair the devices via Bluetooth. Or use a cable and hope the cable does what Windows wants it to do. The Phone app on a Mac is way more simple. You need to have your iCloud account signed in on both devices and bam, your Mac is connected to your iPhone, it's really that simple. In some instances, you may need to allow "Calls on Other Devices" on your iPhone, but if you're already using your Mac to pick up calls from your iPhone, you won't need to enable it specifically for the Phone app. Compared to the simplicity of the Phone app on the Mac, Windows' take is one cumbersome process. It's definitely not as seamless. Spotlight is getting seriously smart. | Image Credit - Apple MacOS 26 is also bringing smart integrations to the Spotlight feature. Now, it is no longer a simple search bar, but it's a powerful control panel that works with Shortcuts, and you can even take app-specific actions (powered by Apple Intelligence). Like, for example, Apple showed a demo during WWDC that you can adjust the color tone on a photo in a photo editing app just by searching for that function in Spotlight. And yep, this seems to include complex apps like Photoshop, where finding a specific function can be a big struggle. On top of all that, Spotlight will also contain clipboard history and allow you to create automations with Apple Intelligence . Spotlight also supports shortcut Quick keys, and you can even send messages directly from the Spotlight app itself. On the other hand, we have Windows 11 working on adding an AI assistant to the search bar to help you find what you need. We all know that if you don't know the specific name of the feature or setting that you want to find on Windows, finding it via the search bar is nearly impossible. Meanwhile, Windows Search works in such a way that it tries to catalogue everything you own to help you find it easier. The issue is that it's a background process that has its own routine, and you can see notable performance loss, seemingly out of nowhere. So a majority of Windows users know to disable "Search" as soon as they install Windows, for that main reason. On macOS? That's not required. Continuity is getting a boost with macOS 26. | Image Credit - Apple Continuity is getting a boost with macOS 26, and it's not just the Phone app. You can also now have live activities from your iPhone visible on your Mac. This includes tracking an Uber or a delivery. When you click on the live activity, you'll see iPhone Mirroring, which allows you to take action directly from your Mac. This, coupled with earlier features of macOS such as the Handoff feature, makes the experience of using both an iPhone and a Mac an even better one and absolutely game-changing. Phones are a big part of our lives, and having this seamless integration with your laptop is a huge deal. And yep, you don't need any manual pairing, fiddling with settings, or installing apps to achieve that, it's just there.


Phone Arena
2 hours ago
- Phone Arena
Samsung delays One UI 8 for Galaxy S25 as beta testing continues
Samsung's newest phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Galaxy Z Flip 7, arrive with One UI 8 out of the box. It was believed that phones like the Galaxy S25 are also going to get the Android 16-based One UI 8 soon, but it seems Samsung is not done beta-testing One UI 8 for the Galaxy S25 just yet. One UI 8 brings some welcome improvements and a more optimized and fluid experience, but it's more of a refinement update, unlike One UI 7, which brought a plethora of new features. With One UI 8 , you can enjoy smarter AI, a new version of DeX, new tools in Good Lock modules, and enhancements to the Now Brief and Now Bar features. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 sport One UI 8 out of the box. In order of priority, one would expect the Galaxy S25 series to be next in line to get the stable One UI 8 . Back in May, the beta program for One UI 8 started for Galaxy S25 owners, and more or less every fortnight, a new beta version would be seeded. But it's been a month since Samsung sent the third beta update, which made some Galaxy S25 users expect that the stable version would follow next. Well, unfortunately, that's not the case, as it seems Samsung is not done beta testing the new software. The South Korea-based tech giant announced on its Korean forum that One UI 8 beta 4 will roll out sometime next week. Of course, the post was accompanied by apologies for the delay and assuring users it's for the better (which is probably true, as nobody likes random bugs). A new One UI 8 build has also appeared on Samsung's test servers for the US and Canadian Galaxy S24 models as well, meaning these phones are also among the devices to receive the new One UI soon. One UI 8 is still in beta testing for Galaxy S25. | Image Credit - Samsung There is no official release date for the stable version of One UI 8 . The third beta was rather good on the Galaxy S25 series, so maybe the stable release is going to come soon, although we don't know that for certain just yet. As much as I love bugs being ironed out with new releases, I can't help but think Samsung's schedules with One UI have recently started to look quite messy. One UI 7 's release was confusing with the official schedule even being revisited, now, things aren't looking to clear either. Meanwhile, Samsung's main competitor, Apple, is more straightforward with updates. The company has a clear schedule for updates for iPhone fans, and there's no confusion around it. Apple makes new iOS versions official with new iPhones every fall, while it starts beta-testing new iOS versions after WWDC every spring. Samsung seems a bit more sporadic in that regard. The new foldables shipping with One UI 8 , just six months after One UI 7 came with the Galaxy S25 , really makes Samsung's update schedule feel all over the place.