Android smartphone sales are going down worldwide, but Apple is not taking this crown anytime soon
Android smartphone sales are going down worldwide, but Apple is not taking this crown anytime soon
Publish Date: 2026-05-26 15:01:00
Source Domain: www.phonearena.com
We all know Apple won the global smartphone vendor war last year, and then the first three months of 2026 saw the Cupertino-based market leader fight tooth and nail against Samsung to retain that crown, but if you were wondering how the gap between the world’s two most popular mobile platforms looks, you had to wait until today for Counterpoint Research to publish its latest study on the matter.At first glance, this is hardly surprising, revealing that Android continues to hold a comfortable (and logical) advantage over iOS, but look a little closer at the numbers compiled for this year’s opening quarter, and you’ll undoubtedly notice a few key changes compared to Q1 2025.
When 73 percent of sales is a disappointing result
That’s right, I don’t think Android smartphone vendors will be particularly pleased with their combined share of Q1 2026 sales, and Counterpoint researchers seem to agree with me, pointing out that 73 percent represents the operating system’s lowest ever tally for a January-March timeframe.
iOS will not threaten Android’s crown anytime soon, but Apple can still be very happy with this graph. | Image by Counterpoint Research
The score is not only significantly lower than Android’s Q1 2025 share, but its Q2 and Q3 2025 results as well, although for what it’s worth, it at least improves on the platform’s Q4 2025 slice of the pie (which was, however, also lower than its score from Q4 2024).
In short, Android smartphone sales are clearly slipping around the world, and even if we’re not talking huge declines that can put Apple in a position to grab the top mobile OS spot anytime soon, this kind of steady decline must be a cause for great concern for Google and its biggest hardware-making partners.
The iPhone 17 series is (naturally) the key iOS growth driver
After crucially contributing to…
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