Global smartphone shipments rose 2% YoY in 2025; Apple led with 20% market share and 10% YoY growth, followed by Samsung's 19% market share and 5% YoY growth
Context & Ripple Effects
The market entered 2025 after a 4% shipment rebound in 2024 from the 2023 low, but early-year momentum was muted: Q1 shipments rose only 0.2%.
Against that backdrop, full-year 2% growth confirms a slower expansion phase, while Apple widened its lead over Samsung after the two were closely matched in Q1 2025.
First-order effects
- Apple finishes 2025 as the shipment leader, with 20% share and 10% growth, while Samsung holds second place at 19% share and 5% growth.
- The overall market grew only 2%, so the leading vendors' gains occurred in a low-growth replacement market rather than a broad demand surge.
Second-order effects
- Apple's faster growth raises the competitive bar for Samsung: retaining volume leadership in key periods, as it did in the first quarter of 2024, is no longer sufficient to secure the full-year top position.
- With aggregate volumes advancing slowly, smaller handset brands have less market growth to absorb, intensifying the contest for share behind the top two.
Third-order effects
- The data reinforces a market structure in which modest industry growth can still produce meaningful rank shifts when the largest vendors grow at different rates.
- If this pattern persists, smartphone competition will be defined less by cyclical market recovery and more by execution in replacing and upgrading an existing installed base.
The trend: Smartphone shipments are settling into low-single-digit growth, making share capture among incumbent leaders more consequential than expansion of the overall market.