Smartphone Statistics 2026: Shipments, Share and Ownership

Global smartphone shipments shrank 22.0% year-on-year to 255.3 million units in the third quarter of 2026, according to preliminary data from International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC called it the highest year-on-year decline to date of any quarter, with memory costs up approximately 350% since last year. These smartphone statistics cover shipments, vendor share, prices, operating systems, ownership and networks, each with its period and source.

IDC now forecasts 2026 shipments to decline 13.9% to 1.09 billion units, which would be the steepest annual contraction in smartphone history. About nine-in-ten US adults (91%) own a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011, per Pew Research Center.

Key Takeaways

• Shipments fell 4.1% in Q1 2026, 6.7% in Q2 2026 and 22.0% in Q3 2026, ending a run of growth that began in mid 2023.
• Memory costs were up nearly 300% from a year earlier in Q2 2026 and approximately 350% by Q3 2026, per IDC.
• Samsung (22.6%) and Apple (22.4%) led Q3 2026 shipments, while Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo shipments fell 29.2%, 34.5% and 31.5%.
• IDC’s May 2026 forecast puts 2026 shipments at 1.09 billion, with a further 1.1% decline expected in 2027.
• 16% of US adults are smartphone-only internet users, owning a smartphone but no home broadband service, per Pew Research Center.
• 82% of individuals 10 years or older own a mobile phone worldwide, but only 53% in low-income economies.

Editor’s Choice

• Smartphones shipped worldwide in 2025: 1.26 billion units.
• Global smartphone shipments, Q3 2026: 255.3 million units.
• IDC’s 2026 average selling price forecast: a record $550.
• Android share of mobile operating system use, September 2026: 69.17%.
• Global 5G subscriptions after Q1 2026: 3.1 billion.
• Apple iPhone net sales, three months ended June 27, 2026: $54,252 million.

Smartphone Statistics: Global Shipments in Q3 2026

• The global smartphone market shrank 22.0% year-on-year to 255.3 million units in Q3 2026, based on IDC’s preliminary tracker data.
• IDC said the drop marked the highest year-on-year decline to date of any quarter.
• Memory costs have surged approximately 350% since last year and are still rising, said IDC senior research director Nabila Popal.
• IDC expects market growth to be constrained through 2027, with any possible recovery pushed to 2028 at the least.
• Samsung shipped 57.8 million units and Apple 57.3 million, down 5.8% and 4.0%.
• Samsung and Apple together held 45.0% of Q3 2026 shipments.

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, October 14, 2026 (preliminary)

Is the smartphone market declining?

Yes, by shipment volume: shipments fell 22.0% in Q3 2026, and IDC forecasts a 13.9% decline for 2026 as a whole. IDC says that as higher prices reach the shelf, many buyers are keeping their current devices longer. Fewer upgrades, not fewer owners, is what the shipment data reflects.

About This Data

Compiled from 13 sources. They include 7 IDC tracker releases and forecasts, 2 company releases and filings, 1 Pew Research Center survey, 1 UN agency report, 1 web usage dataset and 1 research firm release. Sources were published between October 2025 and October 2026. Only organizations that produced the figures were used; market-research resellers were excluded. Figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when sources publish new editions.

Quarterly Smartphone Shipments Since Q3 2025

• Global shipments increased 2.6% year-over-year to 322.7 million units in the third quarter of 2025, IDC’s first estimate for that quarter.
• IDC’s Q3 2026 table lists Q3 2025 shipments at 327.3 million, so the base was revised up by 4.6 million units.
• Q4 2025 shipments rose 2.3% year-over-year to 336.3 million units, supported by premium growth, foldables and pull-in demand as consumers anticipated upcoming price hikes.
• Q1 2026 shipments decreased 4.1% to 289.7 million, breaking a growth streak of 10 consecutive quarters that began in mid 2023.
• Q2 2026 shipments fell 6.7%, the second consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline.

Recent Developments

• October 14, 2026: IDC reported a 22.0% year-on-year drop in Q3 2026 smartphone shipments, to 255.3 million units.
• October 14, 2026: IDC said Samsung and Apple continue to gain share as shipment declines at Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo intensify.
• October 14, 2026: IDC warned that vendors who raised production plans could face inventory build-up heading into 2027 if demand remains weak.
• September 2026: Android held 69.17% of worldwide mobile operating system market share and iOS 30.81%, according to StatCounter.
• July 30, 2026: Apple reported fiscal 2026 third-quarter revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16% year over year.

Annual Smartphone Shipments and the 2026 Forecast

• Smartphone shipments reached 1.26 billion units in 2025, closing the year with 1.9% year-over-year growth.
• IDC’s February 26, 2026 forecast: shipments to decline 12.9% in 2026 to 1.1 billion units, the lowest annual volume in more than a decade.
• IDC’s May 26, 2026 update: a 13.9% decline to 1.09 billion units, a further downward revision from the February forecast.
• The 2027 outlook moved from a modest recovery of 2% in the February forecast to a second consecutive decline of 1.1% in the May forecast.

Smartphone Market Share by Vendor in 2025

• Apple shipped 247.8 million smartphones in 2025 for a 19.7% share, ahead of Samsung’s 241.2 million and 19.1%.
• Apple and Samsung posted the highest growth rates among the top 5, at 6.3% and 7.9%.
• Their combined share expanded by two percentage points to 39%, up from 37% the year before.
• Xiaomi ranked third with 165.3 million units and a 13.1% share.
• Apple maintained its leadership for the third consecutive year, per IDC.
• Vendors outside the top 5 shipped 400.0 million units, or 31.7% of the 2025 total.

Who is the No. 1 smartphone brand?

Apple led full-year 2025 shipments with 247.8 million units. Samsung led Q3 2026 with 57.8 million. The answer depends on the period you pick, because the two brands sit within a percentage point of each other in both the annual and the latest quarterly table.

Samsung vs Apple Smartphone Market Share by Quarter

• In Q2 2026, Samsung shipped 62.7 million units for a 22.6% share and Apple 55.8 million for 20.1%.
• Apple’s Q2 2026 shipments grew 15.3% and Samsung’s 8.1%, while Xiaomi’s fell 26.3%.
• IDC said Apple was on track for a record 22% annual share this year.
• Huawei posted 20.9% year-on-year growth in Q2 2026 by holding prices steady in China.
• In Q3 2026, Samsung’s share reached 22.6% and Apple’s 22.4%, up from 18.7% and 18.2% a year earlier.

By the numbers: Xiaomi shipped 30.7 million units in Q3 2026, OPPO 25.6 million and vivo 19.1 million. Together they shipped 35.0 million fewer units than a year earlier, against 6.0 million fewer for Samsung and Apple combined.

Smartphone Prices and Memory Costs

• IDC’s February forecast projected the smartphone average selling price to rise 14% to a record $523 in 2026.
• By May 2026, IDC expected a record average selling price of $550, up $100 from last year.
• Memory costs were up nearly 300% from a year earlier, according to IDC’s Q2 2026 release.
• In IDC’s Q1 2026 release, prices in several emerging markets had risen by as much as 40 to 50%.
• IDC said the sub-$100 segment of 171 million devices would become permanently uneconomical.

Source: IDC smartphone releases and forecasts, February to October 2026

Key finding: Memory now accounts for over 65% of the bill of materials at the low end, making survival increasingly difficult for manufacturers with low-end portfolios, IDC’s Nabila Popal said. That cost share helps explain why budget-focused brands are falling fastest while premium vendors decline far less.

Smartphone Shipment Forecast by Region

• Regions with the highest concentration of sub-$200 devices are facing the sharpest declines, with the Middle East and Africa forecast to drop 23% in 2026.
• North America holds up comparatively well, with only a 6.3% decline forecast.
• In North America, 60% of shipments in Q1 2026 were above $800.
• IDC’s February forecast had expected a 20.6% drop for the Middle East and Africa and 10.5% for China.

Mobile Operating System Market Share

• Android held 69.17% of worldwide mobile operating system market share in September 2026, according to StatCounter.
• iOS held 30.81% in the same month.
• IDC forecasts Android shipments to drop 21% in 2026, while its iOS forecast improved from an 8.1% decline to just 5.2%.
• IDC expects iOS to deliver its highest annual share ever in 2026, at 22%.
• Huawei’s HarmonyOS is forecast to reach 62 million units in 2026, up from the 42 million previously forecasted.

StatCounter’s share describes phones in use, while IDC’s 22% describes new phones shipped this year, so the two iOS figures answer different questions.

Smartphone Ownership in the US

• About nine-in-ten US adults (91%) own a smartphone, up from just 35% in Pew Research Center’s first survey of smartphone ownership in 2011.
• 98% of Americans now own a cellphone of some kind.
• Pew surveyed 5,022 US adults from Feb. 5 to June 18, 2025.
• Ownership reached 81% in the February 2019 survey and 90% in September 2023.
• Pew polls through 2021 were conducted via phone, while the 2024 and 2025 polls used web, mail and phone, so the series spans a change in survey mode.

Smartphone Ownership by Age in the US

• Smartphone ownership is highest among adults aged 18 to 29, at 97%, and lowest among adults 65 and older, in Pew’s 2025 survey.
• The gap between the youngest and oldest age groups is 19 percentage points.
• 16% of US adults are smartphone-only internet users, meaning they own a smartphone but do not subscribe to a home broadband service.

Global Mobile Phone Ownership

• Globally, 82% of individuals 10 years or older own a mobile phone, falling to 53% in low-income economies, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
• Universal ownership, a penetration rate of over 95%, has been reached in high-income economies.
• 78% of females and 87% of males aged 10 and over own a mobile phone, a gender parity score of 0.90.

Source: ITU Facts and Figures 2025

Why it matters: In Africa, 66% of the population own a mobile phone, but only 36% are online, a difference of 30 percentage points. Low-end price rises land hardest in markets like these, where the gap between owning a phone and using the internet on it is widest.

iPhone Revenue and Apple’s Smartphone Business

• iPhone net sales reached $54,252 million in the three months ended June 27, 2026, up from $44,582 million a year earlier.
• That is a 21.7% year-over-year increase in iPhone net sales.
• For the nine months ended June 27, 2026, iPhone net sales were $196,515 million, against $160,561 million a year earlier.
• Apple said in its quarterly results filing that its installed base of active devices reached a new all-time high across all major product categories and geographic segments.

5G Subscriptions and Mobile Networks

• The 162 million new 5G subscriptions added in Q1 2026 brought the global total to 3.1 billion, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report.
• 5G subscriptions are forecast to more than double to 6.4 billion by the end of 2031.
• 5G networks handled 48% of all mobile data traffic at the end of 2025, a figure expected to rise to 85% by the end of 2031.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026

Best-Selling Smartphones and Foldables

• Apple’s iPhone 16 was the best-selling smartphone globally in 2025, according to Counterpoint Research.
• Apple and Samsung dominated the Top 10 list for the fourth consecutive year, with those 10 models contributing 19% of overall smartphone sales in 2025.
• Samsung captured three spots in the list, with the Galaxy A16 5G becoming the best-selling Android smartphone of 2025.
• IDC forecasts foldables to grow 20% year-on-year in 2026, supported by new models and Apple’s entry into the segment in the second half of the year.

What is the #1 selling phone in the world?

The iPhone 16 was the best-selling smartphone globally in 2025, according to Counterpoint Research’s Global Handset Model Sales Tracker. Counterpoint expects replacement cycles to grow, with financing, trade-ins and the refurbished market likely to alleviate the stress. Rising memory prices make an older flagship the realistic upgrade for many buyers.

Conclusion

IDC’s preliminary data puts third-quarter smartphone shipments at 255.3 million units, down 22.0%. These smartphone statistics show memory costs shrinking the market from the bottom, while Samsung and Apple take a larger share of a smaller total.

91% of US adults already own a smartphone. The next shipment figures depend on how long owners keep their current phones and whether memory prices ease enough for IDC’s forecast rebound to arrive.