New Delhi: After Apple jumped to the first spot in 2025, Samsung is expected to take the lead in the smartphone market this year. Samsung is projected to benefit from its strong product portfolio as well as its capacity to manage the increase in components’ costs.
Smartphone 2012 is a tough year. Memory chip prices have been rising, as has the production of phones, due to a shortage of DRAM chips as well as NAND chips. Global Smartphone shipments and sales are set to drop 14.3% in 2026, as per Counterpoint predictions. But Samsung expects to be in a better situation than many of its rivals.
Strong performance despite a weak market
Samsung has a large smartphone lineup as one of its key strengths. Samsung’s markets its products across all segments (premium, mid-range and affordable), therefore by reaching the diverse segments of buyers.
Samsung has not gotten off to a bad start in starting 2026. In the second quarter, Samsung has claimed the top spot in the global smartphone market with a 24% share, ahead of Apple at 20%, according to reports and sources. The top five smartphone brands saw the Samsung phones come out with the highest year-on-year growth during the quarter.
The Galaxy S26 series has also given Samsung a boost. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s performance has been bolstered by high sales of its flagship premium smartphone in recent years. The company’s premium smartphone enterprise has been driven by the success of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Earlier releases also powered by some Galaxy A series helped Samsung’s sales from the flagships.
Memory shortage could favour Samsung
The smartphone industry is getting hurt by the current memory-chip shortage, particularly for those that rely on outsourcing. But Samsung has a huge edge as it is one of the giant memory chip makers in the world.
This will make the company’s supply chain more integrated and may help the company cope with higher memory prices compared to some of its competitors. Despite the anticipated significant drop in the smartphone market, Samsung is projected to see its shipments rise by approximately 0.8% in 2026 according to Counterpoint.
This could put Chinese smartphone companies like Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo under more strain as they have higher shares in low-end price brackets, where the extra cost of components could be more significant.
Premium phones and foldables can add more momentum
Samsung is also beefing up the top-of-the-range Galaxy S and foldable smartphone line. The company will be able to tempt those seeking the big-time phones with some of the latest Galaxy Z Fold8 series devices.
To make the high-value devices affordable and easy to buy and upgrade, Samsung has also introduced financing, protection and buyback benefits for its newest foldables in India.
Samsung has several things working in its favour as it sees strong demand for its Galaxy S26, a wide array of A-series CPUs, rising foldables shipments, and a significant supply-chain advantage over memory chips.
Samsung could regain the lead in the global smartphone market again in 2026 if the trends persist, surpassing Apple.
