A month earlier, we got acquainted with the top five best-selling smartphones in the first quarter of 2022, but then we were talking about all price categories, which is why Samsung budgets were included in the rating. Now, Counterpoint Research researchers offer a look at the premium segment (from $400) of the global market. According to the report, almost one in four (23%) of premium smartphones sold on the planet is an iPhone 13. The second and third positions are occupied by the iPhone 13 Pro Max (13%) and the iPhone 13 Pro (9%). Not far behind is the iPhone 12, which occupied a share of 8%, and only in the fifth position with an almost 3-fold lag is the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (3%).

Looking at the summary chart of brands in the premium segment, it is not difficult to see the increase in Apple’s dominance, which increased from 57% to 62% in a year. Last but not least, this is due to Huawei losing its share, and Samsung also has a decline. The researchers also note that despite all the efforts of Chinese brands to sell expensive devices, their overall share in the premium segment has only declined.

But the most curious thing happens inside the premium segment, which the researchers divided into 4 ranges for clarity. It turned out that buyers have become more willing to purchase devices above the psychological price limit of $ 1000: if a year earlier there were only 9% of them, now every fourth (27%) goes to this one. At the same time, the share of those who were previously satisfied with the $800-999 segment has drastically decreased – apparently, it is they who have flowed into the super-premium (from $1000). A drop in interest is also observed in the lower segment of $400-599, which has decreased from 33 to 24%. Probably, some of them formed an increase in a slightly higher range of $600-799 (from 30 to 34%), and some left the premium segment completely, preferring more affordable smartphones.

Thus, we can conclude that companies have succeeded in shifting the Overton window of buyers in favor of extremely expensive smartphones, and in the coming years, the price tag of top models has a good reserve for growth.

© Vladimir Kovalev. mobile phone

Sourced from counterpointresearch.com