Samsung is dominating the European smartphone market − but not because of the S10 or Note 10

Samsung’s market performance in Europe is the best it’s been since 2015, according to new figures, and it’s the firm’s lesser-heralded A series that’s leading the charge. 

Data and insight company Kantar reports that the Samsung A series has been a major success in Europe, leading to more favourable sales figures and a bigger share of the market for the company.

Dominic Sunnebo, Kantar’s global director, said: “Whilst the flagship Note 10 series launch provided a boost to Samsung in Q3 2019, it is the highly competitive new A series which has launched Samsung share to its highest [market] share since in Europe since Q3 2015.”

The company has seen growth in the five major European markets, and its European market share has hit 38.4%. That’s 5.9% higher than during the same period of 2018.

Sunnebo explained: “New A Series models account for five of the top ten best-selling models in Europe and account for the entire top 3; #1 A50, #2 A40, #3 A20e. For years Samsung has been searching for an answer to Huawei and Xiaomi in Europe and the new A series has finally hit the mark, proving hugely popular with consumers across numerous price brackets.”

At the time of publication, share prices are also up on the London Stock Exchange, from October 2018.

When we spent time with the Samsung Galaxy A50 in September, we noted the promise of a top-end smartphone experience for a smaller than the usual price tag. It comes in at £309 on Samsung’s website. That’s the sort of offering that can fuel a market share increase like the one Samsung is seeing currently.

Related: Best smartphone

The Samsung Galaxy A50 cops a lot of the headline-grabbing features from the flagship Galaxy S10 phone. Three cameras? Check. In-display fingerprint sensor? Check. Infinity display (translation: really skinny bezels)? Also check. No 5G though (but did you really expect it to be a 5G phone?).