The Mobile World Congress 2025 opened its doors today in Barcelona, bringing together smartphone manufacturers and industry experts to discuss the latest trends and innovations. This year's focus will heavily be on the smartphone market, as analyzed by QBerg, which highlights significant shifts over the past year.
According to QBerg, the Italian smartphone market is currently saturated, with almost 10,000 models available online. "Definire affollato il panorama dell’offerta di smartphone in Italia è quasi ovvio: in vendita sul Web ci sono quasi 10.000 modelli, tutti contraddistinti da una serie di varianti per display, sistemi operativi, specifiche tecniche, colore e prezzo, dove abbondano prodotti con un’età media di oltre 4 anni e solo il 30% è stato messo in vendita nel 2023 e nel 2024," QBerg reported. This overwhelming diversity includes numerous outdated models, indicating consumer preferences may be shifting away from rapid technological advancements.
One notable trend is the decline in the number of new smartphones introduced. QBerg reports 1,304 models were launched in 2024, reflecting nearly a 20% decrease from the 1,619 models launched the previous year. This reduction points to manufacturers' strategic decision to streamline their offerings, potentially to avoid overwhelming consumers and rationalize the smartphone selection.
Chinese brands are leading the market, with QBerg noting three out of every five smartphones available online are from companies such as Xiaomi and Oppo. Brands from East Asia, including those from Japan and Korea, account for 17.4% of the market share, with US brands trailing at just 9.7%. This emphasizes the dominance of Chinese brands within the competitive smartphone retail environment.
Samsung remains the leader in Display Share—a key indicator of visibility on sales platforms—in the smartphone segment, showing almost double the visibility compared to its competitors. The South Korean giant has significantly curbed its new model release by nearly 40% compared to last year, and it has also lowered the average prices of its new models by approximately 13%.
Other manufacturers have seen varying outcomes. Apple, for example, has reduced its new model offerings by about 20%, hinting at its own strategic recalibrations amid strong market pressures. Conversely, Motorola experienced growth with new models increasing by 20%. Meanwhile, both Oppo and Realme saw rises of around 30%. Notably, Honor's offerings dipped by 5.4%, and Xiaomi's dropped drastically by 50%, raising concerns about its competitive edge.
Looking forward, QBerg posits, "Nel corso del 2025 sarà interessante verificare, e già dal Mobile World Congress potranno esserci alcune risposte, l’evoluzione di alcuni trend industriali: continuerà la razionalizzazione degli assortimenti, o si ritornerà ad una espansione a largo raggio dell’offerta di nuovi smartphone?" This question captures the essence of the industry's direction as brands strategize their responses to market demands and consumer behavior.
The upcoming discussions at the Mobile World Congress 2025 are anticipated to reveal whether manufacturers will continue this trend of rationalizing their offerings or if they will expand their product lines significantly. Brand leaders from the US and East Asia are also under scrutiny to see if they can maintain or grow their influence, particularly within the premium segment against the backdrop of increasingly competitive pricing from Chinese manufacturers.
With the smartphone market undergoing these significant changes, stakeholders and consumers alike await clear signals indicating the future direction of this technology-heavy industry. The year's market dynamics highlight not just shifts within brand performances but also echoes broader trends of tech consumer behavior steadily moving toward product rationalization over sheer quantity.