Apple took roughly half of all smartphone revenue worldwide in the third calendar quarter of 2026, its highest share ever for that period, according to new data from Counterpoint Research. 9to5Mac reported the figures on November 5.
The numbers come from Counterpoint's global smartphone market report for the quarter. Samsung ranked second by revenue with 19 percent of the total, followed by Xiaomi at 6 percent, OPPO at 5 percent and vivo at 4 percent. The gap between Apple and the rest of the field is therefore very wide when measured in money rather than in units.
Counterpoint also says the average selling price of an iPhone reached an all-time high of $1,031 in the quarter, a 19 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.
Pricing, not volume, drove the result
Shipments were not the story. Counterpoint Research Director Tarun Pathak described Apple as the most resilient major brand of the quarter, with shipments nearly flat year over year. In his assessment, Apple has enough pricing power to absorb rising memory costs and pass them on to buyers without hurting demand much.
Pathak pointed to several factors behind the higher average price. One was the higher launch pricing of the iPhone 18 Pro series, which contributed even though the phones arrived late in the quarter. Another was that the standard iPhone 18 was absent from this year's launch lineup. The third was the price increases Apple applied to older iPhone models in September. Together, he said, these let Apple post strong revenue growth in a market he described as otherwise challenging.
Samsung still leads on units
Measured by shipments rather than revenue, the picture is much tighter. Counterpoint puts Samsung at 22 percent of global smartphone shipments and Apple at 21 percent. Samsung keeps the lead in unit share, but the report notes that its advantage over Apple narrowed slightly during the quarter.
What it means
The data lines up with Apple's recent strategy of leaning on its higher-priced models, and it arrives days after the company's own fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report. Counterpoint's figures are third-party estimates, not numbers published by Apple, and Apple does not break out iPhone unit shipments in its own financial statements. Readers who want the full methodology and market breakdown can find it in Counterpoint Research's report.
0 comments