Global smartphone shipments fell 6% year on year to 272.0 million units in the second quarter of 2026, according to research firm Omdia — and the decline was not spread evenly. Samsung and Apple both grew. Every other vendor in the top five posted a double-digit drop, with Xiaomi down 26% and OPPO and vivo down 17% and 18% respectively. For anyone shopping for an Android phone, that split is the story: the brands that historically competed hardest on price are the ones pulling back.
Smartphone shipments in Q2 2026: who grew and who shrank
Omdia’s vendor table puts the contraction in blunt terms. The market shed roughly 17 million units against the same quarter last year, and almost all of that loss came out of the Chinese Android brands and the long tail of smaller vendors.
- Samsung — 60.5 million units, 22% share, up 5%. Omdia credits its in-house memory business for absorbing component shortages better than rivals, plus the delayed Galaxy S26 launch pushing premium demand into Q2.
- Apple — 55.1 million units, 20% share, up 23%. Its strongest-ever second quarter, in what is normally its weakest season.
- Xiaomi — 31.2 million units, 11% share, down 26%. A second consecutive quarter of decline.
- OPPO (including realme and OnePlus) — 28.4 million units, 10% share, down 17%.
- vivo — 21.5 million units, 8% share, down 18%.
- Everyone else — 75.2 million units, down 10%.
Xiaomi’s fall is the sharpest because its exposure is the widest: Omdia says more than half of its shipments are priced below US$200, which is exactly the band where a memory price increase cannot be absorbed without either killing the margin or moving the sticker. Emerging markets across Asia Pacific and Latin America carried the worst of it. OPPO’s decline is partly self-inflicted — Omdia describes it trimming entry-level SKUs across its three brands to protect profitability.
Why the cheap phones are disappearing first
The cause running underneath all of this is component cost. Memory, storage and application processor prices have climbed through 2026, and Omdia’s read is that vendors have stopped chasing volume and started defending average selling prices instead — passing costs through selectively, thinning out entry-level line-ups, and steering their portfolios towards mid-range and premium tiers. Regional shocks added to it: Middle East shipments fell 18% year on year, though Omdia expects that particular drag to ease in the second half.
What deserves a closer look is the part Omdia frames as an opportunity. Its analysis argues that as buyers get used to paying more, vendors have a chance to lock in a structurally higher pricing floor that outlasts the memory shortage that justified it.
“Price is once again becoming a competitive differentiator. The current memory cost cycle is driving a structural repricing of the industry, creating a lasting shift in how vendors compete on pricing, profitability and product positioning.” — Le Xuan Chiew, Research Manager at Omdia
Read that from the other side of the counter and it is a warning. The current round of increases is being explained to buyers as a temporary response to a component crunch — Google has already blamed a RAM cost surge for the Pixel 11’s price, and Xiaomi has already raised the price of a phone mid-cycle. If the industry treats the crunch as cover for a permanent reset, the prices will not come back down when memory does.
What it means for the rest of 2026
Omdia expects shipments to keep falling for the next two quarters despite flagship launches and the holiday and festival selling seasons, with no broad recovery until component costs ease. It also expects vendors to lean harder on financing plans, trade-in schemes and bundles — which make a more expensive phone feel affordable per month without making it cheaper.
The practical advice is unglamorous: if you are shopping under ₹20,000 or US$250, expect fewer models and worse spec-per-rupee than a year ago, and treat a trade-in or EMI offer as a financing product rather than a discount. If you were waiting for prices to fall back, the people modelling this market do not think they will.
Sources: Omdia
