Samsung Stays on Top as Apple Crosses 20 Percent and China Shipments Slide

New third quarter numbers paint a mixed picture for the smartphone industry. Globally, Samsung holds onto the top spot with roughly 23 percent of the market, while Apple has pushed its own share past 20 percent for the first time in a third quarter, even though Apple's actual shipment volume was down compared with a year earlier. Both companies growing their share while one of them ships fewer phones says more about what is happening to smaller competitors than it does about either Samsung or Apple individually.

China tells a different story

Inside China specifically, the picture is rougher. Shipments there fell 15.4 percent year over year to 57.9 million units, with weak consumer spending and rising memory chip and component costs both getting blamed for the slowdown. Apple was not immune, with its China shipments down 4.3 percent for the quarter.

The one standout was Huawei, the only major vendor to post double digit growth in China during the quarter. That lines up with Huawei's own product push this season, including the newly launched Mate 90 series, and suggests the company is picking up ground domestically even while the broader Chinese market contracts.

What this means going into the next few months

Rising memory and component prices showing up in these numbers also help explain some of what we have been covering lately, including sharper price increases on phones like the OnePlus 16 and leaked European pricing for the Oppo Find X10 series that looks steep next to the China launch price. If component costs keep climbing, expect more of the big flagship launches over the next couple of quarters to carry higher starting prices than their predecessors, rather than holding steady.

None of this is a crisis for the market leaders. Samsung and Apple both grew their share of a shrinking pool, which usually means the squeeze is being felt hardest by smaller and mid sized manufacturers rather than the top two. Huawei's growth in China is the exception worth watching, since it is happening in the one market that is otherwise contracting the fastest.