The US smartphone market saw interesting shifts in the share of major brands in the second quarter of 2026.
According to ITNA quoting Phonearena, based on the latest Counterpoint Research data, smartphone shipments in the US increased by about 6 percent compared to Q2 2025. This comes while the institute's previous report had indicated a 5 percent decline in phone sales for the period. The difference between the two figures is due to “sales” and “shipments” being two different metrics.
Rising component costs, especially memory chips, have led companies like Samsung and Apple to try to ship more devices to carriers, stores, and distributors before prices rise further.
Among companies present in the US market, Samsung experienced the largest growth. Its share of US smartphone shipments rose from 27 percent in Q2 2025 to 30 percent in Q2 2026. However, the interesting point is that this growth apparently came more from the Galaxy A17 5G rather than the flagship Galaxy S26 series.
Samsung still ranks second in market share and remains far behind Apple. Despite Apple’s share falling from 58 percent in Q1 2026 to 54 percent in Q2, it remains the clear market leader in the US. Apple’s 54 percent share is roughly similar to Q2 2025.
The performance of the Galaxy A17 5G shows that budget phones have become more important amid rising component prices. The $249.99 base price of this model has led Samsung to pay special attention to the budget segment to maintain its US sales; increasing the price of this model could have a greater impact on the company’s overall sales than making flagships like the Galaxy S26 Ultra more expensive.
Further down the rankings, Motorola saw its shipment share fall from 12 to 11 percent. In contrast, Google’s share rose from 2 to 3 percent, although this growth is still insufficient to make the Pixel series a mainstream brand.
Overall, Q2 2026 data show that the US market remains dominated by Apple, but Samsung, relying on budget phones like the Galaxy A17 5G, has been able to slightly narrow the gap.