The global pandemic might have affected the smartphone industry but this never stopped people purchasing some new gizmos during the lockdown. According to statistics from data research firm Strategy Analytics, people are increasingly buying midrange Android devices over their more premium alternatives.
Top of the list was Samsung’s midrange Galaxy A51 which turned out to be the bestselling Android phone in the first three months of the year, followed by Xiaomi’s Redmi 8. The Galaxy S20 Plus was the only flagship phone in the firm’s top-six ranking, where it came in third. Strategy Analytics Associate Director Juha Winter explained that;
“As mobile operators have reduced subsidies in recent years, and many countries are now tumbling into post-virus recession, smartphone consumers globally are becoming increasingly price-sensitive. Consumers want value-for-money devices with good-enough specs at affordable prices. Android is entering a post-premium era.”

Canalys another huge analytics company seems to have different statistics, although the two disagree slightly on which specific midrange Android phone sold the most, potentially due to the different ways they’ve counted their handsets. Canalys counts the Redmi Note 8 & 8T as a single device, and places it in first, ahead of the Galaxy A51. However, they both agree that among Android phones, midrange models are dominating.
This is not a surprising trend– even before lockdown, previous reports indicated that the bestselling Android phones of 2019 were also cheaper Galaxy A-series and Xiaomi Redmi models. But the trend towards cheaper Android phones has continued into this year and is accelerating as a result of post-virus economies.
We are sure some are wondering where Apple falls in this whole ranking equation. Canalys pegs the iPhone 11 as the bestselling phone of the first quarter of the year, with the iPhone 11 Pro Max and Pro taking the sixth and tenth spots respectively. This makes the smartphone giant an exception to the rule. But now that Apple has made a serious effort to re-enter a more affordable price category with the new iPhone SE, next quarter’s data could show the price-sensitive trend spreading to iOS especially given the fact that the data we have seen only stops in March 2020.