Apple is experiencing nearly unstoppable global sales momentum right now on the back of its new iPhone 17 lineup, with the previous-gen iPhone 16 variants also adding to residual strength. As a result, Apple has now become the largest smartphone brand by global market share.
Counterpoint Research has just published an interesting report, noting that ."
The report notes elsewhere:
- Global smartphone shipments grew for the second consecutive year in 2025, recording an annual growth of 2 percent in the just-concluded year.
- Apple's "iPhone 17 series gained significant traction in Q4 following its successful launch, while the iPhone 16 continued to perform exceptionally well in Japan, India and Southeast Asia."
- Samsung ended 2025 with a 19 percent global market share and 5 percent year-over-year growth in shipments.
- "While Samsung is under pressure in Latin America and Western Europe, its 2025 growth was aided by strong momentum in Japan and sustained growth in its core markets."
- Xiaomi ended the year as the third-largest global smartphone OEM with a market share of around 13 percent.
- Looking ahead, Counterpoint Research expects global smartphone sales to decline by 3 percent year-over-year in 2026 as AI-driven DRAM/NAND shortages bite and component costs rise.
Do note that Counterpoint Research had penned a similar report towards the end of November 2025, predicting that Apple was likely to end 2025 with a 10 percent year-over-year growth in iPhone shipments, equating to a global smartphone market share of around 19.4 percent - the highest among global smartphone OEMs . Consequently, the research firm had noted at the time that Apple would clinch the proverbial crown for the global smartphone market for the first time in over a decade, leaving Samsung as the runner-up.
As far as hard numbers are concerned, do note that . Therefore, a 10 percent increase from this baseline means that Apple is likely to have shipped a whopping 254.98 million iPhones in 2025.
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