Samsung beats Apple in global smartphone shipments again, in part thanks to Galaxy Z Fold 7

Andrew Romero | Oct 30 2025 - 8:28 am PT

Worldwide smartphone market share remains largely unchanged as Samsung and Apple continue to battle it out for the top spot in global shipments. Partly due to a successful Galaxy Z Fold 7 launch, Samsung holds the top spot.

Samsung’s recent earnings call spelled out a number of initiatives for next year, including teasing upcoming flagships. The report notes that Samsung experienced YoY and QoQ growth, but left out some of the finer details regarding this year. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 gets a specific shoutout as one of the strongest launches of the year, which holds true if previous reports are correct.

A separate report via Omdia notes that Samsung did, in fact, grow in global smartphone shipments. Shipments went up by 6%, from 57.5 million to 60.6 million in Q3 2025. This is the latest data we have since Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

It appears that Samsung also retained its spot over Apple, which grew by 4% YoY. The global market share remains unchanged between the top spots, at 19% and 18% for Samsung and Apple, respectively. This is the second year Samsung has retained pole position since its overtake in 2024. This is also the second year both OEMs have been on the rise since a fall in 2023.

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The specifics on Galaxy Z Fold 7 shipments are missing, but the report notes that “growth was driven” by the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7. It can be assumed that the success of the Android foldable pushed Samsung a little further up the rankings, even if the Galaxy S25 series was moderately successful according to the numbers.

This comes as Samsung is getting things in place for its Galaxy TriFold launch. The company recently teased the device for the first time in person at APEC 2025. It’s now clear just how thin the foldable is, even if there are a lot of questions still unanswered. Samsung plans on releasing that device sometime this year.

When it does, it likely won’t give Samsung a substantial edge on the earnings side, as the company plans to produce a very limited run of devices. It may not even debut in the US.