A new report from TrendForce claims that Apple’s iPhone production jumped 19.7% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, even as the global smartphone market as a whole contracted 1.7% over the same period.
According to TrendForce, Apple produced approximately 60.2 million iPhones in the first quarter, placing it second among global smartphone brands. Samsung retained the top spot with approximately 62.6 million units, a year-over-year increase of 2.3%. TrendForce attributes Apple’s strong production in part to the launch of the iPhone 17e, in addition to the continued ramp-up of production of the broader iPhone 17 lineup.
These figures reflect Apple’s relative resilience in a market increasingly faced with rising costs of memory components. TrendForce says Apple is better positioned than most of its competitors to absorb these higher costs without sacrificing profitability, and suggests the company is more likely to prioritize growing its market share during the current downturn, as it lays the groundwork for its growing software and services business. Apple is one of the few major smartphone brands that has not raised its prices in response to soaring memory prices.
The picture is considerably darker elsewhere. Chinese brands Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo rank third to fifth in the world with 29.5 million, 26 million and 22 million units respectively. TrendForce warns that all three face significant uncertainty over their 2026 production plans as rising memory costs weigh on profitability. Transsion, sixth with around 19.8 million units, would be particularly exposed given its heavy focus on the entry-level and economy segments where margins are already thin.
Looking ahead, TrendForce forecasts that global smartphone production will decline by about 16.2% year-over-year to 1.051 billion units in 2026. The company warns that this figure could get worse if memory prices remain high and brands are forced to pass the costs on to consumers through repeated retail price increases.
