Romania buys almost three million smartphones a year, Samsung has about half of the market, and one color dominates when it comes to preferences. How long on average do Romanians keep their phones until they are replaced? How complex have grown? Which segments perform better? What is the difference between the best brand in Europe and the world?

The overall smartphone market in Romania is likely to be 6% lower than in 2022, in terms of volume, but there will be an 8% increase in value, as more expensive phones are bought on average, Tiberiu Dobre said in an interview with HotNews.ro , head of Samsung’s mobile division in Romania.

The market for phones in the lower price segment is shrinking, while premium phones (over 600 euros) are growing. The so-called “super-premium” segment, over 1000 euros, occupies a significant share.

In terms of units, Romanians will buy almost 3 million smartphones of all brands in 2023, with Samsung occupying roughly half of the market.

On average, people keep their phones for about 33-34 months, which is almost three years, because smartphones are reliable, some brands offer software updates for several years, and people tend to keep their phones even longer, and because average prices per quantity of these gadgets has increased in recent years.

“The bottom line is that the experience is positive because the premium phone segment is growing, which means a better user experience and better access to advanced technology,” says Samsung’s Tiberiu Dobre.

The most expensive phones on the market even cost more than 10,000 lei, and the cheapest – less than 600 lei. The segment of the market with high volumes of sales consists of phones priced from 1,500 to 2,500 lei.

A Samsung representative says that sales of the company’s foldable phones in Romania this year have increased by 40-50% compared to 2022. While the ratio between Z Flip and Z Fold was roughly equal at the beginning, the smaller model Z Flip 5 now has about 70%, while the Z Fold 5 has about 30% of sales.

What colors do Romanians choose when it comes to phones? Tiberiu Dobre says that Romanians are conservative in this aspect, and about 55% of Samsung customers prefer black, in our country it is the highest share in Europe for this color. True, many people then put on a cover of a different color. In terms of preferred colors, the green from the Galaxy S22 also did well, as well as the ‘lavender’ color from the Galaxy S23.

At the opposite pole, white is a color that Romanians tend to avoid with new smartphones. At Samsung, its share was only 8-9% in Romania, while in some European countries it was 20%.

How many phones are bought annually in the world? About 1.2 billion, and the latest IDC figures show Samsung at 20%, Apple at 18%, Xiaomi at over 13% and Oppo at nearly 9%.

Data for Europe, published by Counterpoint, shows an 11% drop in sales in the third quarter compared to the third quarter of 2022. In the last quarter, Samsung occupied 32% of the European market, and Apple – 24%. Xiaomi had 22%, and at a long distance two brands: realme with 4% and Honor with 3%.