Experts: Samsung and Apple give way to Chinese brands by number of smartphones sold in Tatarstan
But they are slowly restoring their leadership
Smartphones from Samsung and Apple lost sales in Tatarstan at the beginning of 2023, market participants told Realnoe Vremya. However, by now both brands have managed to increase demand and re-enter the top in sales. At the same time, Chinese brands began to gain popularity — Realme, Xiaomi, Honor, and Tecno. Read more about the changes in the smartphone market of Tatarstan in our material.
Sales drop by 24%
The share of Samsung smartphone sales in the first half of 2023 in Tatarstan dropped sharply from 35% to 11% compared to the same period last year, the press service of Megafon told Realnoe Vremya. The operator's experts attribute this to a drop in the brand's marketing activity.
“A significant decline occurred due to changes in the marketing activity of the brand. This lag was compensated by Chinese manufacturers," the press service explained.
As for iPhone gadgets, at the beginning of the year they showed a slight drop in sales relative to last year. This happened due to the shutdown of a number of functions introduced due to sanctions.
According to the MTS press service, Samsung and Apple also lost in retail sales of smartphones in Tatarstan in the first 6 months. The operator confirmed that this led to an increase in demand for Chinese brands.
“Last year, Chinese brands managed to strengthen their positions during the reorientation of logistics chains and the limited presence of some smartphone models on the Russian market. In the first half of 2023, Samsung and Apple, in terms of the number of smartphones sold in the MTS retail network in Tatarstan, in pieces, gave way to Realme, Xiaomi and Tecno in the top," the press service reported.
A new surge
Despite a significant decline in device sales, Samsung and Apple still managed to recover. At the moment, brands in some ratings are again in the top.
So, starting from March, the number of iPhone smartphones sold gradually began to increase, Megafon stressed. By June, sales had increased by 80%.
“The sales of Apple smartphones also showed a slight drop at the beginning of the year compared to last year, but since March the figures have become significantly higher than last year's figures," the operator stressed.
The press service of MTS also reported a new increase in the popularity of Samsung. The brand managed to become one of the leaders after falling sales. Moreover, some of the company's novelties appear in Russia earlier than in the whole world. Such models include, for example, Samsung Galaxy S23.
“Nevertheless, Samsung is not losing popularity among Tatarstan residents, remaining on the same level with the leaders of the rating in terms of sales," the company reported. “Moreover, now many new products appear in Russia simultaneously with the whole world or even earlier.
Popularity of Chinese brands
Against the background of declining sales of the two flagships, the popularity of Chinese brands began to increase. Over the year, they managed to strengthen their positions and break out among the leaders.
For example, the press service of Megafon reported that only Chinese manufacturers entered the top 3 this year: Honor, Realme, and Xiaomi. The company explains this trend by that brands regularly expand the model range in different price segments.
They announced the replacement of Samsung and Apple with Chinese brands in the top three and in MTS. According to the results of the first half of 2023, Realme, Xiaomi, and Tecno entered the top. The Chinese models Honor X7a , Honor X8a, Honor X6, Tecno Spark 8C and Tecno Spark Go 2022 became the most popular among Tatarstan residents.
Nevertheless, the flagships still entered the top five in the Citilink rating. In Tatarstan, Xiaomi, Samsung, Realme, Infinix, Apple gadgets were bought most often (in descending order) according to the results of sales in May and June.
MTS added that according to the results of the second quarter, the highest demand is recorded for smartphones worth up to 10 thousand rubles. The sales of such devices increased 2,5 times. At the same time, the interest of users in premium segment devices worth more than 80 thousand rubles has also increased. Their sales has increased 2,2 times.