As one champion falls, two more rise. According to market-share numbers from Counterpoint Research, OnePlus and Motorola won big from LG's departure in a growing US smartphone market, with OnePlus even taking some potential share from market leader Samsung.
LG quit making smartphones this year, but not because its phones weren't selling in the US. LG's problems were elsewhere in the world. So the company's departure left a hole in the US market, which it looks like the OnePlus N100, N200, and Motorola's G-series phones have rushed to fill.
The US smartphone market is really two markets. The postpaid market is dominated by Samsung and Apple; between the two of them, Samsung and Apple made up 98% of postpaid sales at AT&T and 89% at T-Mobile in June, according to Wave7. But there's also a prepaid market, where there's a lot more diversity in terms of manufacturers of lower-end phones.
OnePlus saw more than 15% market share at Metro by T-Mobile and 7% at mainline T-Mobile in June, Wave7 says. But there's even more room for OnePlus to grow at Metro; 20% of June sales at Metro were still LG's lower-cost phones as dealers run down their inventory, Wave7 says.
With Samsung prioritizing its high-end phones in an era of chipset shortages, OnePlus stepped into another gap, Counterpoint says.
"The [Samsung] A32 5G was a big hit in T-Mobile’s ‘5G for All’ campaign. Because of supply problems or by design, T-Mobile has changed the high-volume 5G switcher device to the OnePlus N200. This device is one of the most affordable 5G devices in the market at the moment. These large volumes are helping OnePlus grow its installed base and become an early winner in filling the void left by LG," Counterpoint's US research director Jeff Fieldhack says in a blog post.
Wave7 agrees that Samsung has been particularly hit by the chipset shortage, with one source in Wave7's July report referring to Samsung inventory as a "problem child."
OnePlus recently pivoted from producing primarily higher-end phones to having a full lineup of lower-priced devices. Its most recent midrange phone, the Nord CE 2, isn't designed for the US, but we expect a similar device to appear here as the Nord N20 within the next few months.
That pivot made OnePlus the "fastest-growing" phone maker in the US, although Counterpoint doesn't say what sales number that percentage is based on. OnePlus does note that the "Nord N-Series sold more than 1 million devices since January."
Along with LG, the Counterpoint numbers show ZTE and Google to be in decline this year. ZTE has struggled with political issues that may be causing carriers to shy away. (Like Huawei, ZTE is a Chinese company that also has a network infrastructure business; Motorola and OnePlus are Chinese, but don't make infrastructure.) Google just hasn't released any new phones all year and hasn't shown much interest in pushing the ones it has.
Lower-end phones in the US will continue to see a boom over the next few years because of forced upgrades and network changes, Fieldhack says. If Verizon's purchase of Tracfone goes through, millions of Tracfone customers will need to be moved to Verizon's network, and as Dish switches its Boost brand from Sprint's network to AT&T's, that will also force new phone purchases.