Apple finished as the world’s No. 1 smartphone brand in terms of shipments in the first quarter of 2026, according to new data from Counterpoint Research. This is the first time the company has dominated the market in the first quarter.
Apple captured 21 percent of global shipments and grew 9 percent year-over-year, even as the overall market contracted 3 percent. Samsung comes in close behind, also with 21 percent on roughly flat shipments, followed by Xiaomi at 12 percent, OPPO at 10 percent and Vivo at 7 percent. Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s shipments fell 19% year-on-year, while OPPO and Vivo’s shipments declined by 4% and 2%, respectively.
This Apple brand milestone follows Counterpoint’s earlier finding that the iPhone 17 was the world’s best-selling smartphone model in the first quarter, during which the iPhone 17 series swept the top three spots in the company’s Global Handset Model Sales Tracker. During Apple’s April 30 earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said the iPhone 17 family was the most popular line in Apple history.
In addition to sustained demand for the iPhone 17, Counterpoint attributes Apple’s brand performance to its proactive supply chain management as well as improving sales in China. The company said Apple’s ability to keep prices high and protect margins also helped it weather the current memory chip shortage much better than its competitors.
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DRAM and NAND memory shortages continue to weigh on the market overall, with chipmakers prioritizing AI data center customers over smartphone makers. Cook said memory shortages and rising costs would have a greater impact on Apple later in 2026. Counterpoint expects the rest of the year to have a similar impact on most brands, with the memory crisis potentially extending through the end of 2027.
