The global smartphone market reports from International Data Corporation (IDC) give us a good glimpse at how the smartphone market is performing each quarter. The latest Q2 2025 report released by the firm shows the slowdown in smartphone shipments amidst the economic slowdown, but Samsung pulling ahead, managing to ship more smartphones in the market's context.
According to the latest Q2 2025 report from IDC, Samsung shipped over 58 million smartphones and holds a market share of 19.7%. It has shot up from 18.4% in Q2 2024, coming in at a healthy 7.9% YoY change.
Sales of Apple and Xiaomi smartphones, on the other hand, have been nearly stagnant with YoY changes of just 1.5% and 0.6%, respectively.
Company | Q2 2024 shipments (in million) | Q2 2025 shipments (in million) | Year-over-year change |
Samsung | 53.8 | 58 | 7.9% |
Apple | 45.7 | 46.4 | 1.5% |
Xiaomi | 42.3 | 42.5 | 0.6% |
Vivo | 25.9 | 27.1 | 4.8% |
Transsion (Infinix, Itel, Tecno) | 25.5 | 25.1 | -1.7% |
Others | 99.1 | 96.1 | -3.1% |
There was an overall increase of just 1% in the total smartphone sales from Q2 2024 to Q2 2025. Samsung was the most impressive of the bunch with a 7.9% year-over-year change, with Vivo coming in second in terms of growth with a healthy 4.8% increase.
According to the VP of Client Devices at IDC, Francisco Jeronimo, Samsung's growth despite the market slowdown should be owed to its selection of mid-range devices that brought AI features to the masses.
Samsung was able to consolidate its market leadership and outperform the overall market achieving strong growth in the quarter driven by the sales of its new Galaxy A36 and A56 products. These new products introduce AI-enabled features to mid-range devices, which has been effectively used in retail stores to drive sales, as more consumers become curious about AI.
— Francisco Jeronimo, Client Devices VP, IDC
Shipments from Apple and Xiaomi did not see a significant increase, at only 1.5% and 0.6%, respectively. Apple even saw a 1% drop in China this quarter, which could be the reason for its mere 1.5% change.
Transsion Holdings, consisting of brands Itel, Infinix and Tecno saw a -1.7% decrease, while Oppo couldn't make it to the top five, potentially pointing to a further decline from 25.8% in 2024.
The decline in smartphone shipments could be rooted to the ongoing global crisis that involves geopolitical, economic slowdowns and tariff wars. However, the report suggests that the market is expected to grow in the next few quarters.
Smartphone market has mostly been flat in China, which has also affected the global growth. The current report, however, marks the 8th consecutive quarter of growth for smartphone shipments, which is a first since the year 2013.
With new technologies like smart glasses taking over and users not finding incentives to switch smartphones often, it should be interesting to see how the market fares over the course of the next year.
