Android: sales of the top of the range are dropping, Apple rejoices

We certainly don't find out today that when we talk about top of the range, sales often tend to reward branded products Apple instead of those Android. Ever since smartphones have existed, for many consumers the iPhone is one of the main choices when you want to spend a lot. Fortunately, the market is varied and allows users to choose how much and how to spend, preferring some features over others. And if you look at who has sold the most smartphones during the 2021, it's not Tim Cook's company that leads the way. But the speech becomes very different if we focus only on the premium range.

The premium range is increasingly in the hands of Apple, Android drops

To give us an overview of the story is Counterpoint Research, one of the main research centers when it comes to analysis of the technology market. The first factor to take into account is theincrease in the average selling price (also called ASP): as demonstrated by the classification of receipts of the various manufacturers, the average price of the smartphones purchased has risen by + 12 %, reaching an average of $322. The merit (or demerit, depending on the point of view) of this trend is to be attributed precisely to Apple, which with the success of the series iPhone 13 has shifted the balance of the market.

Selling a top of the range is by no means an easy feat: creating a smartphone with all the specifications in the right place is not enough to convince the public. When it comes to spending hundreds if not thousands of euros, many other aspects come into play: guarantee of service, solidity and prestige of the brand, to name a few. All aspects in which the Android manufacturers do not seem to shine, according to data published by Counterpoint Research.

As this graph shows us, from 2020 to 2021 Apple it rose further in popularity, passing from 55,4% to 63,5% of the premium market of smartphones. The graph does not refer to world sales but only to those in China, but it is still a highly interesting data. This is because most of the Android manufacturers are based in this country: Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo e OnePlus. And despite Huawei left ample room for maneuver because of his slump in sales, these brands have failed to capitalize since his demise.

All companies have tried to take advantage of Huawei's absence to conquer more slices of the premium market: we saw it with OnePlus, which launched its top of the range months in advance of the West. But also with Honor e OPPO, both grappling for the first time with folding smartphones to which it will be added shortly vivo. However, the market does not seem to be responding as expected: for example, sales in the first month of launch of Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro (460.000 units) are lower than those of Mi 11 and Mi 11 Pro (1,12 million units ).