Samsung Tops Global Smartphone Shipments with 6.3% Growth in Q3 2025

Global smartphone deliveries picked up again in the third quarter of 2025, recording a 2.6% rise year over year to 322.7 million units. This marks the ninth straight quarter of growth, breaking the streak of stagnation that has plagued the industry for a while.

Samsung (KRX: 005930) is still holding firm as the world's smartphone heavyweight, shipping 61.4 million units - up 6.3% from the same period last year. That gain nudged its market share up by 0.6 percentage points, propelled largely by the hot-selling Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, which are pulling ahead of their predecessors in sales.

Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) took the second spot with shipments of 58.6 million units, a 2.9% increase. The story here is an encouraging rebound in China, where Apple reversed eight quarters of falling sales. The iPhone 17 series boosted demand, pushing quarterly shipments there to 10.8 million units, a modest 0.6% uptick.

In third place, Xiaomi (HKE: 1810) expanded its footprint in European and Latin American markets. The Redmi Note and Poco series helped increase shipments by 1.8% year-over-year to 43.5 million units. However, Xiaomi's shipments within China slipped 1.7% to 10 million units, reflecting localized market challenges.

Speaking of China, the smartphone market there showed little movement overall, dipping 0.6% to 68.4 million units amid a lull in new model releases. Both sell-in and sell-through figures dropped by 1-2%, indicating cautious consumer sentiment or perhaps a wait-for-the-next-big-thing mentality.

What's intriguing is how Samsung's foldables seem to be carving out a niche, contradicting early skepticism about whether they'd be mainstream crowd-pleasers. Meanwhile, Apple's slow but steady recovery in China validates the power of brand loyalty combined with innovative hardware updates. Xiaomi's mixed performance hints at sharply divergent regional dynamics that will be worth monitoring.

For now, the global smartphone race is heating up again, but market saturation and regional shifts keep everyone on their toes. The question remains: who will grab the next spark of growth when the usual suspects run out of steam?