Samsung and Apple were the winners in a Q3 smartphone market that dropped 20%

Counterpoint Research (CR) has just published its report regarding the global smartphone market for the third quarter of the year (July to September). And it was a terrible one. Shipments dropped 20% compared to Q3 2025. The only winners in terms of growing their market shares were Samsung and Apple.

Samsung led the pack with a 23% market share (compared to 19% in the year-ago quarter), while Apple was a close second with 22% (up from 18% in Q3 2025). They were followed by Xiaomi with 10% of the pie (down from 14%), Oppo with 9% (down from 12%), and vivo with 8% (down from 9%).

CR says Q3 2026 saw the lowest smartphone shipments in 14 years in a third quarter, and of course it's all due to "continued memory shortages" as CR puts it. We'd qualify that a bit - it's not shortages per se, but rather a shortage of not-insanely-priced memory.

Anyway, Samsung's decent performance is apparently due to "robust early demand" for the Galaxy Z Fold8, Fold8 Ultra, and Flip8 (although the Fold8 was apparently the king of the bunch). On the other hand, Apple's market share crossed 20% for the first time in any Q3 in history. CR says premium device demand remained resilient, while the affordable end of the market is being squeezed out by increasing prices thanks to the ever more expensive memory.

Global retail smartphone prices have gone up by 20% so far this year, CR says. The firm thinks the outlook for the rest of the year "remains challenging", with smartphone makers increasingly prioritizing profitability over shipment volumes. Production cuts, trimmer portfolios, and a greater focus on premium devices are all expected to continue.

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