Amid all the back-and-forth turmoil surrounding tariffs, and ongoing sales struggles in China, Apple and the iPhone have at times appeared “doomed.” But new data from Counterpoint reveals the iPhone actually just hit a big sales achievement for the first time ever.
iPhone won Q1 of global smartphone sales for first time ever
Counterpoint just published its global smartphone sales report for Q1 2025. Through the first three months of the year, overall sales were slightly up.
But the iPhone was the big winner.
For the first time ever in a year’s Q1, Apple achieved the biggest market share of any smartphone company.
The iPhone garnered 19% of global smartphone sales overall—powered in part by iPhone 16e’s successful launch.
Here’s a breakdown of the two global smartphone leaders:
- Apple: 19% share, up 4%
- Samsung: 18% share, down 5%
As you can see, Apple’s achievement is in large part due to Samsung’s poor year-over-year performance. While the iPhone grew 4% for the quarter, Samsung—the typical Q1 leader—saw a 5% sales dip.
While [Samsung] had a slow start due to the late launch of the S25 series, its sales showed a resurgence after the launch of the flagship S25 and new A-series devices. Samsung’s sales grew by double-digits in March.
We don’t have specific sales numbers for the iPhone 16e, so it’s hard to know how much the new model contributed to Apple’s overall achievement.
However, it’s still pretty remarkable that after all the success Apple has had, it can still set new iPhone records like this one.
What do you make of Apple’s iPhone success last quarter? Let us know in the comments.
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