Conceptual illustration: the smaller phone-shaped form represents a shrinking China smartphone shipment market; the blue portion represents Apple’s shipment share. The shapes depict market proportions, not physical phone dimensions. Illustration: MacDigest.
Apple gained smartphone shipment share in China in Q3 2026 while shipping fewer devices. IDC’s preliminary report, published October 13, puts Apple second behind Huawei, which increased shipments as the wider market contracted.
Two different routes to a larger share
Apple’s share rose two percentage points. Its shipment decline was much smaller than the overall market’s, while Huawei combined a higher share with growth in the number of phones shipped.
| Vendor | Q3 2025 share | Q3 2026 share | Shipments, year over year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | 15.8% | 17.8% | −4.3% |
| Huawei | 15.2% | 21.1% | +17.3% |
China’s total reached 57.9 million smartphones, down 15.4% year over year. IDC attributes the broader slowdown to higher memory and component costs feeding into device prices and longer replacement cycles.
What the figures don’t show
IDC’s published tracker notes describe branded new-device shipments and exclude refurbished units. Shipment share measures a quarter’s flow of devices rather than the installed base of phones already in use.
These preliminary figures cover China; our earlier Counterpoint report tracked worldwide shipments. Shipment totals alone cannot establish retail purchases, individual-model demand or Apple’s revenue and profit.
