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Shimul Sood \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n
TL;DR<\/p>\n
Apple is doing something Android brands would rather not talk about right now. iPhone shipments grew in the first quarter of 2026 after finishing 2025 as the world\u2019s top smartphone brand<\/a> in terms of units shipped. This is despite the fact that the US smartphone market shrank.<\/p>\n Counterpoint Research\u2019s latest data for Q1 2026 shows<\/a> that total US smartphone sales declined 5.7% year-over-year (YoY). Nevertheless, Apple still managed to grow its sales by 1.3%. If you\u2019re an Android fan, the numbers are even worse: Android sales in the US fell 14.4% over the same period.<\/p>\n The first quarter is usually a tussle between Apple\u2019s aging iPhone cycle and Samsung\u2019s shiny new flagships<\/a>. This year, the script was flipped. Samsung has postponed the launch of the Galaxy S26<\/a> series to mid-March. That one month delay created a premium vacuum, which Apple was more than happy to fill.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/strong><\/p>\n With no new Galaxy flagship to steal the spotlight in January and February, consumers ready for an upgrade just walked into carrier stores and walked out with an iPhone 17.<\/p>\n The big US carriers\u2019 numbers tell a dominant story: Apple took over. The tech giant\u2019s share of smartphone sales at Verizon hit a massive 77% in Q1. To put that in perspective, that means that three out of every four phones sold at Big Red had a lightning bolt, er, USB-C port, and an Apple logo on them.<\/p>\n Counterpoint said Apple played the promotional game hard, beating Samsung on \u201cpromotional power\u201d for devices priced above $600. While Android OEMs are battling rising component costs<\/a>, Apple has managed to keep its pricing for entry-level models like the iPhone 17e stable, even doubling the base storage to 256GB.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t all doom and gloom for Android fans. Motorola and Samsung did see some growth, of course, in the prepaid and the national retail spaces (Walmart, Target) but the high-end postpaid space is an Apple fortress at the moment.<\/p>\n![\"google](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png\"\/ "\\"google"){kind=icon}
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