Who said the smartphone market was finished? After a largely steady few years, 2025 ended with a subtle but meaningful reshuffling: the global market grew roughly 2% and a handful of challengers—Honor, Nothing and Google’s Pixel—posted the kind of gains that make incumbent giants sit up and take notes.
Global picture in a few numbers
According to industry tallies, Apple and Samsung both expanded volumes by about 7% year‑over‑year and each held roughly 19% of global shipments for the year. Behind them, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and the Chinese export specialists showed mixed results. But two things stood out: Honor’s double‑digit growth and several smaller brands enjoying outsized percentage gains thanks to modest bases.
Why Honor’s rise matters
Honor’s +11% year‑over‑year shipment growth isn’t a freak stat. The company has been quietly pivoting from low‑cost volumes to premium proposition—investing in better materials, AI features in MagicOS, and a sharper focus on foldables and display tech. That strategy has paid off in Europe and parts of Asia, where carrier partnerships and retail placement have given Honor premium shelf space and subsidies that drive mainstream adoption.
The company’s success in foldables in particular deserves attention. Samsung still dominates the category, but alternatives are proliferating and cornering pockets of demand. If you want to keep an eye on the shape of that competition, Samsung’s experiments with multi‑fold hardware hint at how quickly the market can iterate: take a look at Samsung’s recent tri‑fold prototype explorations Samsung’s Tri‑Fold Prototype.
Nothing’s headline grab—and its limits
Then there’s Nothing, the London‑based design darling. The company posted an eye‑catching 86% year‑over‑year growth—but that percentage masks scale. Nothing’s base is much smaller than Huawei’s former sub‑brand or the Pixel family, so big percentages are easier to achieve. Its growth is real, though: design appeal, timely launches and strong online buzz have translated into higher sell‑through in markets where design and brand narrative matter.
Pixel’s broader momentum
Google’s Pixel brand also grew strongly—about a quarter more shipments year‑over‑year—driven by a clearer product cadence, competitive mid‑range entries like the 9a series, and tighter integration between hardware and Google’s software/AI stack. Pixel still sits far behind the top two in raw volume, but its trajectory suggests Google’s long game—building desirable hardware as a showcase for services—may finally be bearing fruit. If you’ve been tracking Pixel pricing and availability, recent Black Friday and discount patterns for the Pixel 10 family are a useful bellwether for demand and channel strategy Pixel 10 Series deals.
Apple’s strong quarter and the U.S. angle
While challengers nibble at share globally, Apple’s commercial performance remained robust. Reports showed Apple had one of its strongest quarters, pushing particularly well in the U.S. and lifting market share in key channels. That performance underscores the two‑tier reality of the market: challengers can steal share regionally and in specific segments, but Apple and Samsung still command the most profitable swaths of the industry.
Pressure points for 2026
There’s a warning flag: memory prices. Analysts flagged a looming memory supply squeeze that could raise bills of materials substantially in 2026. That change would disproportionately hurt thin‑margin, sub‑$300 devices—the very segment where many small brands compete. Expect pressure to squeeze margins, push consolidation among low‑end players, and perhaps prompt price increases or feature cuts in the cheapest models. Motorola’s recent gains in the sub‑$300 category show how nimble device makers can capitalize on churn at the bottom end.
What this means for consumers and competitors
For consumers, more competition at the premium and foldable ends is a win—faster iteration and better value often follow when incumbents feel heat. For the big vendors, the story is more mixed: they still control scale and carrier relationships, but niche challengers are carving out defensible positions with focused product bets and sharpened marketing.
Honor’s path will be the most consequential to watch. If it can sustain premium momentum across Europe and other receptive markets, it will force more aggressive moves from Samsung and Apple in pricing, retail partnerships and product features. But geopolitical headwinds and lingering brand‑origin doubts could limit how far Honor can push, especially in North America.
A market in gentle motion
So, 2025 didn’t overthrow the old order. It did, however, remind us that the smartphone market is not static: a mix of product focus (foldables, eye‑comfort displays, practical AI), distribution muscle, and timing can still reshape outcomes. Giants remain giant, but challengers are increasingly strategic—less about blitzscaling on price and more about carving meaningful, defensible niches.
If anything, the most interesting story for 2026 won’t be who wins a headline one quarter—it will be which challengers can turn explosive percentage growth into steady, repeatable scale without getting tripped up by component shocks or distribution bottlenecks. And for readers tracking the shape of future hardware, competition in foldables is worth watching alongside Google’s hardware push and the continuing premiumization of several Chinese brands—trends that together will set the tone for the next wave of phone launches and bargains.
Further reading: for context on foldable innovation and other Chinese flagships pushing the envelope, see coverage of Samsung’s tri‑fold experiments and recent moves from Huawei like the Mate 70 Air Huawei Mate 70 Air.