In the third quarter of 2025, Samsung held the largest share of global smartphone shipments, at ** percent. Long-time competitor Apple ranked second, with an **** percent market share. Samsung and Apple smartphone sales Smartphone vendors have been suffering from the events of the past couple of years, including the pandemic and the economic downturn. However, they all appear to be recovering, as shown by the recent increase in shipments. For instance, mostly based on the main line of Galaxy Series, Samsung's smartphone shipments totaled nearly ***** million units globally in 2024. Next to Samsung, Apple is a major manufacturer of smartphones worldwide, with the company shipping more than *** million iPhones worldwide in 2024. Apple’s sales tend to be very cyclical, peaking in the fourth quarter each year, much like in the fourth quarter of 2023, when they took the first spot in terms of units shipped globally with around **** units. Xiaomi in the lead While Apple and Samsung are typically the two major companies challenging for the top spot, Huawei had provided a strong challenge in recent years. Particularly, the Chinese company managed to climb the smartphone market ladder between 2011 and 2024, recording shipments of over ** million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2024. However, strong performances from rivals like Xiaomi and the effects of the U.S. trade ban have since seen Huawei fall outside the list of top five vendors by smartphone shipments.

Apple and Samsung were the leading smartphone vendors by the share of shipments in the United States in the second quarter of 2025, at ** percent and ** percent, respectively. Lenovo ranked third, having accounted for ** percent of shipments. Global smartphone market While Apple continues to lead the U.S. smartphone market, it has traditionally lagged on the global scale. Samsung has been the leading smartphone vendor worldwide since 2012. However, Samsung’s lead in terms of market share has started to dwindle in recent years, meaning that Apple and other Chinese competitors, such as Xiaomi, vivo, and Huawei, have seen a boost in the smartphone industry. Apple’s traction on the global scale in 2020 comes from its move towards 5G-enabled smartphones, which have doubled sales in one year, from 2020 to 2021, alone. Apple is currently the leading vendor in terms of global 5G smartphone shipments. The introduction of 5G throughout the world brings with it the possibility to upheave the smartphone market as we know it. Are U.S. consumers satisfied with Apple and Samsung phones? Apple and Samsung not only lead the smartphone market in the United States in terms of usage but also in terms of customer satisfaction. The highest ranked smartphone models on the American customer satisfaction index are nearly all Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone models. Furthermore, it appears that U.S. smartphone users are unlikely to change their primarily used smartphone brand anytime soon.

As of 2023, for the first time ever, Apple ranked as the market leader in the global smartphone market with a **** percent share of all shipments. The tech giant retained the top title in 2024, with a share of nearly ** percent of the global smartphone market. Samsung ranked second, holding ** percent of the market share. Global smartphone market shareSamsung has seen its popularity steadily increase since it held just a *** percent of the smartphone vendor market at the beginning of 2010. Samsung’s share of the overall mobile phone market, has fluctuated in recent times, dropping to under ** percent in the most recent year. Apple became smartphone market leader based on shipments in 2023. Apple’s smartphone sales are relatively cyclical and peak in the fourth quarter each year. In the fourth quarter of 2024, ** percent of all smartphones new smartphones sold were iPhones. The iPhone generated considerable revenue for Apple with sales of the device amounting to over *** billion U.S. dollars in their 2024 financial year.

Samsung held a **-percent share of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2025. Apple followed closely behind, with an overall share of ** percent. The changing face of the smartphone market The makeup of the smartphone market has changed significantly since 2009. Nokia used to lead the industry with almost ** percent of the smartphone market share in 2007, and before the arrival of the iPhone, it was hard for consumers to imagine Nokia becoming a market outsider. Huawei's rise and fall have had a significant impact on the face of the market. Huawei consistently challenged Apple and Samsung for position at the top of the market, even leading it in the second quarter of 2020. Huawei has not appeared in the top five since the second quarter of 2021, largely as a result of trade restrictions. RIM’s BlackBerry devices stand as an example of the effect large-display touchscreen devices had on the market. BlackBerry devices sold on a number of strengths, including a well-designed physical QWERTY keyboard and secure enterprise integration. The BlackBerry lost its unique value as touchscreen devices improved, leading to a significant decline in revenue. RIM eventually ceased development of the BlackBerry in 2016.

In the third quarter of 2025, Apple retained its majority market share in Canada, accounting for about *****percent of the country's entire smartphone market. This was a decrease compared to the previous quarter.

Smartphones running the Android operating system hold an ** percent share of the global market in 2019 and this is expected to increase over the forthcoming years. The mobile operating system developed by Apple (iOS) has a ** percent share of the market.

How Android became the market leader Android’s global success can in many ways be attributed to its open-source software that can be installed on all smartphone devices for free. Developed by Google, the open code provides manufacturers the freedom to choose which apps are pre-installed on their devices, and they can customize layouts to create unique experiences for users. The first commercial version of the Android software was released in 2008 and its rise to market leader was almost instant. The platform held a **** percent share of the global operating systems’ market in 2009, but this figure increased by around ** percent each year for the next three years.

The global smartphone market Annual sales of smartphones have increased to around **** billion units worldwide. They are now available to everyone and not just those with wealth. The cost of buying a smartphone has continued to fall each year, with the global average price now being around *** U.S. dollars. Fierce competition within the smartphone market could be one reason why prices are falling. Samsung (South Korea) and Apple (U.S.) have historically held large shares of global smartphone production, but Chinese brands Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are now offering alternative devices that are proving popular worldwide.

As of April 2025, Oppo led the mobile vendor market in Indonesia, with a share of around **** percent. It was followed closely by Samsung, with a share of about **** percent. Collectively, Oppo, Samsung, and Xiaomi accounted for **** of the mobile market share in the country. Oppo's rising dominance Oppo’s market share in Indonesia has risen significantly over the past years. The brand's relatively affordable prices have been one of the key drivers of its growth in the country, as Indonesian consumers tend to look for value for their money, searching for smartphones that are reasonably priced with good performance. In 2023, Oppo managed to tail Samsung in terms of the market share of unit shipments, indicating strong competition in the rapidly evolving Indonesian smartphone market. Smartphone usage and the telecommunications market With a substantial number of mobile internet users, Indonesia’s telecommunications market is one of the largest in Southeast Asia. Smartphones in Indonesia are used for various activities that require reliable network capabilities, such as video streaming and online gaming. While users have reported positive experience with 5G networks for these activities, the development of 5G infrastructure in Indonesia is still faced with challenges, including high costs and spectrum shortages. This has led to significantly slower 5G network growth compared to Indonesia’s neighboring countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.

In the first quarter of 2024, Samsung and Apple were leaders of the European smartphone market. Xiaomi grew from **** percent in the first quarter of 2019 to ** percent in the first quarter of 2024. Smartphones make up the primary component of the European mobile phone market, with the smartphone penetration rate in Europe being forecast to reach almost ** percent in 2024. Leading manufacturers maintain their share While the total share of the European market held by Samsung and Apple has fluctuated during this time, they still accounted for more than ** percent of the total market in the first quarter of 2024. The two tech giants alone were responsible for around ** percent of global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2024. Rather than the larger manufacturers, it has been the smaller manufacturers such as LG, ZTE and Lenovo that have seen their share of shipments decline. Since the third quarter of 2020, Huawei’s share has dropped significantly as well. Huawei stalls Huawei’s previous growth was observed in the increase of total number of handsets shipped to **** million units in the second quarter of 2020. However, in the fourth quarter of 2020, Huawei’s total number of shipments dropped significantly to **** million, and their European smartphone market share dropped to *** percent in the third quarter of 2021.

As of the first quarter of 2024, Samsung was the leading smartphone vendor, holding 20 percent of the market. Apple followed closely occupying 17 percent of the global smartphone market. Other vendors had lower shares.

In October 2025, Samsung was the brand with the highest market share in Mexico, accounting for over ** percent of the smartphone web traffic in the North American country. As of October 2025, the brand also ranked first in South America.

In 2023, the used smartphone market share (including both officially refurbished and used smartphones) in North America reached ** percent. The used smartphone market is expected to decrease in North America and by 2026, it will amount to less than ** percent of the global used smartphone market. The global refurbished smartphone market In recent years, the refurbished smartphone market has been growing at a global level and reached a size of roughly ** billion U.S. dollars in 2021. In the same year, over 251 million used or refurbished smartphones were shipped globally, with Latin America and India being the market leaders in terms of growth. The U.S. refurbished smartphone market Despite the U.S. playing an active role in the global refurbished smartphone market, Americans appear to prefer to buy new phones instead of reconditioned ones, mainly because they are concerned with the quality and reliability of their smartphones. However, those who do buy such devices prefer Apple iPhones rather than Android smartphones, making the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11 the most popular reconditioned smartphones.

As of July 2024, Apple’s iPhone 15 was the most popular smartphone model sold in the United States, accounting for over **** percent of total smartphone sales. The iPhone was the most popular smartphone in the United States at that time, occupying four spots in the top five. Apple and Samsung: two leading competitors Apple and Samsung are the leading smartphone vendors in the United States with a combined market share of almost ** percent in the second quarter of 2023. The two smartphone vendors dominate the U.S. smartphone market not only in terms of sales, but also when it comes to customer satisfaction: Samsung’s Galaxy line and the Apple iPhones are the highest ranked smartphone models on the American customer satisfaction index. In line with their successes in the United States, Apple and Samsung also lead the global smartphone market, albeit to a lesser degree – the two brands have a combined market share of close to ** percent. Smartphone penetration the highest in the United States Smartphone sales value in the United States more than doubled in the last decade, making the U.S. one of the major smartphone markets globally. In 2024, over *** million smartphones were forecast to be sold, with the number of U.S. smartphone users forecast expected to grow in the coming years.

The statistic shows share of smartphone shipments worldwide by operating system from 2009 to 2017. In 2017, **** percent of all smartphones sold had Android as its operating system. Smartphone operating systems market - additional information The operating system, also known as an OS, transmits user commands to all other programs and applications. It also controls the peripheral devices, such as printers or cameras. A mobile OS operates on hand-held devices, such as mobile phones, smartphones, tablets or smart watches. While OS themselves are usually available for free and are already installed on the device, the additional programs and apps are tailored specifically for each system. As of 2014, the main players on the smartphone OS market are Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Other smartphone operating systems on the market include Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Blackberry’s RIM to a lesser extent. Symbian, which was used extensively on mobile phones and early generations of smartphones by leading manufacturers, such as Samsung, LG, Motorola and most notably Nokia, was a dominant player on the market in 2009 and 2010. Due to the growing popularity of Android, which most major smartphone manufacturers adopted as their OS of choice, and Nokia’s partnership with Windows Phone, which began in 2011, Symbian was effectively pushed off the market in 2014. Google’s Android leads the global market with an ** percent market share, while Apple’s iOS is second, with ** percent. There are stark differences between regional markets; in the United States for example, the market is almost equally divided between Android and iOS.

As of July 2025, Samsung's market share of smartphones in Asia amounted to ***** percent. Samsung's market share in the Asian smartphone market has declined since 2019.

After fierce competition among Vivo, Samsung, and Xiaomi over the past few years, Vivo became the leading smartphone brand in India, with a **-percent share of shipments in the third quarter of 2025. However, in the first two quarters of 2024, Xiaomi and Samsung ranked as high as or higher than Vivo. Aside from Samsung, the other four top smartphone brands are Chinese. Smartphone market share in India The number of smartphone users in India, the most populous country in the world, was on the rise. In 2023, the number of smartphone users in the country surpassed *********** for the first time. This figure was forecasted to jump to nearly **** billion by 2040. And, around ***** percent of the population in India purchase their phones online. This growth can also be observed in the volume of smartphone shipments in India. The number of smartphone shipments in India increased from **** million units in the second quarter of 2012 to ** million units in the third quarter of 2024. Major players South Korean giant Samsung, a leader in the global smartphone market, had been the top smartphone vendor in India since early 2013, when the company held about ** percent of the market share, until the end of 2017. But its position has been challenged by the Chinese smartphone manufacturers like Vivo, Xiaomi, and Oppo. Vivo is a Chinese tech company based in Guangdong. It's one of the top five smartphone manufacturers in the world. And Xiaomi has quickly risen to the top of China's crowded technology market and is now one of the leading consumer electronics manufacturers globally since its founding in 2010. Xiaomi specializes primarily in smartphones but is also active in other markets, and it started manufacturing electric vehicles in 2023.

Apple's global smartphone market share based on shipments has remained relatively stable between 2014 and 2022. Samsung, on the other hand, has fluctuated, whereas Xiaomi has increased their smartphone market share by nearly ** percentage points since 2014 and now stands as the third largest global smartphone vendor.

In the third quarter of 2024, Samsung took the top position among smartphone vendors by shipments, accounting for 19 percent of the market share, followed by Apple with 18 percent. Xiaomi came in third with 14 percent of smartphone shipments worldwide.

As of August 2024, the South Korean manufacturer, Samsung, ranked as the second most popular smartphone brand in the Mediterranean country with a market share of ***** percent. The company was surpassed by the Chinese technology brand Xiaomi only in 2024 by just over one percent. Xiaomi continues to lead the Spanish market as of September 2023, accounting for nearly ** percent of the country's total market share. The popularity of Huawei, fifth on this list, is reportedly much higher in Spain than in other countries. The rise of mobile communication Mobile telephony has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. The global smartphone penetration hit nearly ** percent in 2023 with the number of smartphone users believed to reach almost *** billion devices worldwide in 2024. This might be related to the fact that smartphones have become more affordable over recent years, with the average smartphone costing around ****** U.S. dollars in 2024. iOS popularity varies The predominance of Android smartphones over iOS in Spain is indisputable, as the Google-developed operating system holds approximately ** percent of the total market share. Globally, Samsung also held the largest slice of the smartphone market by shipments during the second quarter of 2024, with a market share of around ** percent.

As of the fourth quarter of 2024, Vivo accounted for the second-highest market share of smartphone shipments in China at **** percent. In the same observed period, Honor, a divested brand from Huawei since November 2020, gained significant market shares, while Huawei itself, leading player in this market by the end of 2020, has returned to the top five list after a two-year absence. Huawei made a comeback after the launch of the Mate 60 Pro, which took the industry by surprise. Development of the Chinese smartphone market Having contributed massively to the Chinese economy in the last decade, the smartphone industry has been a rather successful industry in China for a long time. This success has even started to spread overseas, mainly from the leading vendors Huawei, OPPO and Xiaomi. Since 2011, the number of smartphone shipments in China has steadily increased, reaching over *** million units in 2016 at the highest ever shipment. However, the figure dropped slightly since 2017, and continue to below *** million units from 2018. Despite this decline, more smartphones were sold in China than in any other country in the world. Smartphones in China China is a country where the smartphone is the key to every-day life. In 2014, there were ***** million smartphone users in China. By 2022, this figure reached over *********** and was subsequently expected to exceed *********** users by 2027. In terms of operating systems, Google’s Android holds around ** percent of the market share, whereas Apple’s iOS accounts for about ** percent of the smartphone operating system market in China. Despite the relatively easier access to cheap smartphones in the market, Chinese consumers still considered the practicalities, namely the internal memory and processor, as the most importantly factor when buying a phone, even much more than the price level and photo qualities.

Android was the unquestioned leader of the mobile operating system (mobile OS) market in 2018, with ** percent of all devices sold running the Android system. Mobile OS ecosystem Smartphone operating systems, often referred to as smartphone OS, are operating systems that operate smartphones, PDAs, tablets and other mobile devices. An operating system allows these devices to run applications and programs, therefore, bringing advanced functions to mobile devices that were previously restricted to desktop computers. The now-discontinued OS Symbian was the first popular smartphone operating system in the world. With the launch of Ericsson‘s R380 in 2000, Symbian became the first modern mobile OS on a smartphone. By 2009, Symbian accounted for nearly half of the global smartphone operating systems market, while RIM/Blackberry, also a pioneer in this market, held around ** percent of the share. Despite the early start, both Symbian and RIM have been almost driven out of the market as new operating systems were released. Apple introduced its first iPhone model to the consumer market in 2007, revolutionizing the market. Prior to the launch of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, smartphones were a rather niche product and had not yet attained mass appeal. As of 2020, Apple's iPhone held the third largest smartphone market share. Since 2011, Apple’s iOS market share has varied between ** and ** percent.