Surpassing Samsung, Apple is expected to become the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer this year.

On November 26th, according to Global Times, Apple is expected to surpass Samsung this year and become the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer. Thanks to the strong sales performance of the iPhone 17 series, Apple's smartphone shipments this year are expected to reach a record 255 million units, a year-on-year increase of about 10%, and its market share is expected to rise to 19.4%.

Data from market research firm CounterPoint Research shows that in the first month after the iPhone 17 series was launched, Apple's sales in some markets increased by up to 22%, while the global smartphone market as a whole declined by 2.7% during the same period. After entering October, Apple's iPhone sales increased by 37% year-on-year, far exceeding the overall market growth rate of 8%. The agency expects Samsung Electronics' shipments to grow by only 4.6% in 2025 and be surpassed by Apple, dropping to second place.

In the Chinese market, iPhone sales in October accounted for a quarter of the total mobile phone sales that month, and 80% of the sales came from the new iPhone 17 series.

The hot sales of the iPhone 17 series are mainly due to factors such as hardware configuration upgrades, reasonable pricing strategies, and Apple's inherent ecological advantages. The standard version of the iPhone 17 is equipped with a 120Hz ProMotion adaptive refresh rate screen for the first time, combined with a Super Retina XDR screen with a peak brightness of 3000 nits, greatly improving outdoor visibility and smoothness. The storage capacity of the entire series has been upgraded from 128GB to 256GB without a price increase, which has solved the problem of "storage anxiety" for users to a certain extent.

In addition, the A19 chip configured in this series of models uses TSMC's 3nm process, and the GPU performance has been improved by more than 30%, which can effectively handle high-load games. The battery capacity has been increased to 3692mAh, and the video playback time has been increased from 22 hours to 30 hours, further improving the battery life and charging experience.

In terms of pricing, the starting price of the standard version of the iPhone 17 remains at 5,999 yuan, the same as that of the standard version of the iPhone 16, which means that consumers do not need to pay a premium for the basic storage. The price of the 256GB version of the iPhone 17 Pro series is also the same as that of the previous generation at 9,999 yuan.

Mengmeng Zhang, a senior analyst at Counterpoint, pointed out earlier that Apple's pricing strategy has brought great pressure to other high-end Android brands. As more flagship models are about to be released, the competition in the mobile phone market in the fourth quarter is expected to be more intense.

Looking back at the global smartphone shipment rankings in the past three years, Apple and Samsung have been in a close race. According to Counterpoint data, the top five brands in global smartphone shipments in 2024 were Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo in order. In the first three quarters of 2025, Samsung temporarily ranked first with cumulative shipments of 180 million units, and Apple ranked second with 170 million units. However, with the hot sales of the iPhone 17, Apple has a chance to overtake Samsung in the fourth quarter.

Due to differences in statistical caliber, the data from IDC is different from that of Counterpoint. In 2024, Apple's shipments were 230 million units, with a market share of 18.7%, ranking first; Samsung's shipments were 223 million units, with a slightly lower share of 18.0% than Apple.

After Apple and Samsung, the performance of Chinese mobile phone brands should not be underestimated. Relying on China's huge domestic demand and active expansion in emerging markets, Xiaomi's shipments reached 168.5 million units in 2024, with a market share of 13.6%, ranking third globally. In the first three quarters of 2025, Xiaomi still maintained strong competitiveness, with cumulative shipments reaching 128 million units, still ranking third.

As the competition in the mobile phone market further intensifies, there are still many variables in the above rankings.

This article is from "Jiemian News", reporter: Song Jianan. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.