­A new analytical report this morning claims that Europe’s smartphone shipments finally returned to growth in Q1 2024, increasing by 10% YoY. This marked the region’s first YoY increase in shipments since Q3 2021, suggesting the worst is over. However, shipments were still well below pre-pandemic levels, and given that Q1 2023 witnessed the lowest shipments in Europe for over a decade, market growth should be treated with caution for the year ahead.

Associate Director Jan Stryjak: “The European market is showing signs of a recovery and consumer confidence is improving, helped by some interesting innovations around on-device AI. But we are not out of the woods yet. Although we expect the market to grow by low single digits for the rest of 2024, this is still off the back of an extremely poor 2023, and we do not expect to return to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon.”

Apple’s shipments were slightly down [though within a margin of error] as iPhone 15 sales continued to tail off due to seasonality. With no iPhone SE expected in 2024, shipments should continue to drop until the launch of the iPhone 16 later in the year.

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Just as we reported on this morning regarding the MEA Market, Chinese Vendors are on the warpath with HONOR up 67%, realme up 59% and Xiaomi up 11%.

Yet what's badly missing in Counterpoint's report is context. Did Apple's premium brand dominate that sector as usual? Were phone shipments from China's realme based on those in the $300 range?

Without some form of context and breakdown of the stats, they become less meaningful and tilted towards companies solely based on shipment volume. If a company sells 20 million phones at $99 dollars, it may make them a volume leader and nothing else. No consumer would be interested in a report comparing sales of a Volkswagen Beetle with a Mercedes Benz.

Perhaps we'll need to see another report on the quarter from Canalys, IDF or TrendForce to get a better overview and breakdown.