Samsung is the world’s biggest phone brand again
Samsung has reclaimed its position as the world's top smartphone manufacturer by shipment volume, despite a global market decline. The industry is currently facing supply chain pressures as memory chip manufacturers prioritize high-margin AI data center components over consumer electronics.
Why it matters
The shift in memory chip allocation highlights how the AI boom is directly impacting the cost and availability of consumer hardware, potentially leading to higher prices for end-users.
Samsung shipped more phones than anyone else between April and June 2026, taking 24% of global smartphone shipments and pushing Apple back into second place. Apple took 20%, which Counterpoint Research says is the highest share Apple has ever held in a second quarter. Apple set that record and lost first place in the same three months, because both companies grew inside a market that was shrinking underneath them.
Counterpoint published the numbers on 13 July. Global smartphone shipments fell 11% against the same three months of 2025, which is the weakest second quarter the industry has recorded since 2013. That was the year the Galaxy S4 launched.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in