Counterpoint: iPhone takes a record 22 per cent of Q3 smartphone shipments, as the market falls 20 per centCounterpoint: iPhone takes a record 22 per cent of Q3 smartphone shipments, as the market falls 20 per cent

Counterpoint Research says global smartphone shipments fell 20 per cent year on year in the third quarter of 2026, and Apple's share rose to 22 per cent.

The figures are preliminary estimates from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service, published on 12 October, and they count sell-in: phones shipped into shops and carriers, not phones bought by people. Counterpoint calls it the lowest third quarter since 2012. Some coverage described a 13-year low in any quarter; Counterpoint's own comparison is with third quarters only. It gives shares and percentages, not unit totals.

How did each brand do?

Counterpoint says it is the first time Apple has passed 20 per cent in any third quarter. 9to5Mac, reading Counterpoint's chart, puts Apple at 18 per cent a year earlier. Samsung's gain was the largest among the big brands, helped by early demand for the Galaxy Z Fold8.

Why did the market fall?

Counterpoint blames memory. Rising DRAM and NAND prices pushed up the cost of building phones and left makers short of parts, and it says retail smartphone prices have risen 20 per cent so far this year. Senior analyst Shilpi Jain said Q3 took "the full brunt of the memory crisis" for a second quarter running.

For Apple, Counterpoint gives three reasons for lower volume. There was no standard iPhone 18 this autumn, so less stock went into shops in launch month than when the whole iPhone 17 range arrived a year ago. Apple's price rises landed only in the last weeks of the quarter. Against that, the iPhone 18 Pro models launched more strongly than their predecessors, particularly in China and India, and the iPhone 17 kept selling.

No second research firm had published third quarter smartphone figures when we checked on the morning of 13 October, so these numbers rest on Counterpoint alone for now.

Our take

A record share in a falling market means Apple fell less than everyone else, not that it grew. Counterpoint does not say by how much. Using its rounded numbers, a market down 20 per cent and a share moving from 18 to 22 points to Apple shipping roughly 2 per cent fewer iPhones. That is our arithmetic, not Counterpoint's, and rounding alone could put the true fall anywhere up to about 7 per cent.

The China detail is consistent with what Counterpoint found in September, when it reported iPhone 18 Pro sales up 12 per cent in their first days in China. The memory explanation is consistent too: IDC found the same quarter knocked 20 per cent off the PC market and 11 per cent off Mac shipments. Phones and PCs are being squeezed by the same parts shortage.

APPDOOK's reading is that the premium end is holding while the cheap end collapses, and Apple sells almost nothing at the cheap end. Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo lost the most because their volume depends on budget models that higher memory prices have pushed out of their price bands. That flatters Apple's share without saying much about demand for the iPhone itself.

What would settle it is Apple's own number. Its fiscal fourth quarter matches this calendar quarter, and it reports on 2 November, in John Ternus's first results call. Apple stopped publishing unit sales years ago, so iPhone revenue and the guidance for the December quarter, with no standard iPhone 18 until spring, are what to watch.