The iPhone 17 was the world’s best-selling smartphone in Q2 2026, taking 6% of global smartphone unit sales, according to Counterpoint Research’s Global Handset Model Sales Tracker. The more interesting number sits underneath it: the overall smartphone market shrank 11% in the quarter, and the ten best-selling models between them accounted for 26% of everything sold, up 2% year on year. Counterpoint ties that concentration directly to the global RAM shortage, which has pushed brands to narrow their attention to premium and high-volume models rather than spread supply across a wide catalogue.
Why the RAM shortage matters more than the iPhone 17’s ranking
A top-10 list that adds up to more than a quarter of the entire market is not a sign of a healthy, varied market. It means fewer models are getting the memory allocation, the marketing budget and the shelf space, and the ones that do are the expensive ones. Counterpoint’s own framing is that brands shifted focus to premium and key volume-driving models to navigate the shortage — polite phrasing for cutting the tail of the lineup.
The knock-on effect lands on buyers. Counterpoint notes that rising smartphone prices have themselves pushed shoppers up into higher-end segments, which is the opposite of how a price increase is supposed to work and mostly reflects that the cheaper tiers have less on offer than they did a year ago. If you are shopping mid-range in the second half of 2026 and finding the choices thinner and dearer than you remember, this is the mechanism behind it. India is seeing the same pressure from the other direction — a leaked memo pointed to Galaxy A57 and A37 price rises of up to Rs 5,000 in the mid-range.
Where Android landed
Apple and Samsung took five spots each in the top 10 — nobody else got a look in. The Galaxy S26 Ultra was Samsung’s best-selling model and the best-selling Android phone of the quarter, climbing five places compared with where its predecessor ranked.
“The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra was the best-selling Android smartphone, marking the first time an ultra-premium Android device has led Android sales in a June quarter.”
That is Harshit Rastogi, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research. He adds that the Galaxy S26 series launched later in the calendar than the S25 did, which shifted more of its sales into the June quarter, and that the S26 Ultra alone accounted for more than half of the series’ total sales.
An ultra-premium phone topping Android sales for the first time in a June quarter is worth sitting with. The June quarter is historically when mid-range Android volume does the heavy lifting. That it did not this time is another read on the same squeeze.
The Galaxy A-series detail worth noting
Samsung’s entry and mid-range Galaxy A phones stayed on the list on affordability and availability — and Counterpoint flags that every Galaxy A model in the top 10 now ships with six years or more of software support, which it links to buyers holding phones for longer. That is the one genuinely consumer-positive data point in the report: if a squeezed market means fewer, pricier models, a six-year support commitment at least means the one you buy stays current for the length of time you are now likely to keep it.
The rest of the picture
- Apple’s quarter: unit sales up 5% year on year against a market down 11%.
- Regional strength: iPhone sales rose in India, Japan and the Middle East and Africa, and nearly doubled in South Korea, per Senior Analyst Karn Chauhan.
- iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone 17 Pro: second and third on the list, helped along by trade-in programmes, promotions and financing.
- iPhone 17e: stayed on the list with MagSafe and more storage at the same price as a year earlier, and remains popular in the US and Japan on the back of carrier promotions.
The RAM shortage is a supply-side story that most buyers will never read a headline about, but it is currently shaping which phones exist, how much they cost and how many options sit between the budget tier and the flagship. Q2’s numbers are what that looks like at the till.
Source: Counterpoint Research
