At the closing of 2025global cell phone shipments grew by 2% and the annual leadership was defined in the last movement: almost at the close of the lists, Apple managed to come first with a 20% share and recovered a title that he did not achieve a decade ago.
Samsung saw its glory slip away, with a 19%according to estimates of Counterpoint. And Xiaomi retained third place with 13%consolidating its advance in emerging markets.
This arm wrestling is repeated as a two-season championship per year. Each semester operates as a repositioning window, where hardware launches, store availability, and carrier agreements reorder the public conversation. In this circuit, leadership not only depends on the product, but also the early arrival to the channel and stock depth.
With that background, the dispute between Apple and Samsung stopped being read only in number of units and began to be measured in execution capacity. Absorbing cost increases without disrupting prices, maintaining agreements with operators and maintaining a stable flow of equipment became an advantage as decisive as the attractiveness of hardware, in a 2026 marked by greater uncertainty.
The family iPhone 17without a single defining feature, gained traction in the last quarter after its launch, driven by a more focused on premium and without intermediate scales. The performance was complemented by the push of the iPhone 16, which sustained strong sales in Japan, India and Southeast Asia and expanded the brand’s commercial reach.
In this brand duel, Samsung was just one point behind, with a 19% share and growth 5% year-on-yearsupported above all by the Galaxy A series, which pushed the volume from the global mid-range. In the aspirational range, its foldables (Galaxy Fold7 and Flip7) also added shipments and performed better than their predecessors.
Although it suffered competitive pressure in Latin America and Western Europe, with the arrival of Chinese brands, the company balanced the result with signs of recovery in Japan and with a firm performance in its historical markets, supported by a catalog that combines a high-volume mid-range and a more refined premium commitment to sustain margins and visibility.
“The global smartphone market cooled in 2026 due to the shortage of DRAM and NAND memory and the increase in the cost of components, in a context in which chip manufacturers prioritized AI-oriented data centers over phones,” said Tarun Pathak, research director.
The fight to be the one
The label of “number one” It varied depending on the metric and the window. That elasticity explains why the podium never seemed completely closed. A quarterly report from Counterpoint, prior to the annual balance, placed Samsung as the shipment leader with 19%, ahead of Apple. Which implies that a well-played semester is enough to twist the story and keep the dispute burning until the end.
In parallel, the release calendar became a competitive tool in itself. The concentration of advertisements in semiannual windows accelerated purchasing decisions and forced manufacturers to adjust prices more quickly. In 2025, this logic compressed the life cycles of equipment and raised the weight of “timing” above pure technical differentiation.
In the underlying discussion, the market operated with a constant tension between price and performance. The mid range was decisive for global volume, because it concentrated most of the purchases, especially in cost-sensitive regions. On the other hand, the highest segment maintained margins and visibility and concentrated the innovation narrative, although it contributed fewer units.
Mobile operators played a central role in this reordering. Longer financing plans, aggressive redemptions, and selective subsidies redefined each brand’s visibility at the point of sale. In some regions, the priority was to ensure volume before margina sign of more intense competition in a context of contained demand.
Another determining factor was the reconfiguration of the supply chain. In 2025 and early 2026, component availability became irregular and forced stagger deliveries and regional releases. The brands with greater logistical capacity managed to maintain a presence, while other manufacturers faced stock shortages and losses of commercial traction.
The stalking of Chinese brands
Chinese cell phones are advancing in the world.The world map is completed with Chinese brands that consolidated their presence through drive and design. Xiaomi retained third place with a 13% fee. The brand sustained its performance through a gradual “premiumization” strategy, combined with a balanced offering between high- and mid-range models.
Execution in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, together with efficient channel management, made it possible to cushion a more demanding industrial context. Xiaomi refined inventories and distribution to maintain availability when other rivals suffered bankruptcy, and strengthened agreements with operators and retailers to gain visibility at the point of sale.
Vivo was located in the fourth step with growth 3% year-on-yeardriven by its advancement into higher value segments and a strong offline presence in India. OPPO, on the other hand, recorded a drop in 4% due to the weakness of the Chinese market and intense competition in Asia Pacific. Even with improvements in India and the Middle East, it failed to offset the decline in other regions.
Outside the top five, brands such as Nothing and Google showed the highest rates of year-on-year growth, with increases of 31 y 25% respectively. Although they started from smaller bases, these results confirmed the growing fragmentation of the market and the emergence of niches with differentiated proposals.
Looking to 2026, projections give a more challenging scenario. The shortage of inputs and the increase in component prices strained the supply chain and reduced the predictability of the sector. In this framework, Apple and Samsung appeared better positioned to maintain pace and availability, while manufacturers focused on the most economical ranges were more exposed.
