The Galaxy S25 Launch Fell Flat — Now Samsung’s Market Lead Is in Jeopardy

The post The Galaxy S25 Launch Fell Flat — Now Samsung’s Market Lead Is in Jeopardy appeared first on Android Headlines.

Apr 14, 2025 - 15:09

Summary: At the end of the first quarter, Samsung still holds the majority of the smartphone market, however its lead is getting smaller and smaller. Xiaomi and vivo saw huge gains in the quarter, as well as Apple – thanks to the iPhone 16e launch.

Counterpoint has released its global smartphone market share data for the first quarter of 2025. And it’s not good news for Samsung. According to Counterpoint, Samsung’s number of shipped units dropped by 5% year-over-year. This is compared to the first quarter of 2024, so it’s essentially comparing the Galaxy S24 launch versus the Galaxy S25 launch. The good news is, Samsung only lost two percentage points in overall market share.

This brings Samsung and Apple even closer in terms of market share. Apple currently has 19% for Q1, with Samsung at 18% and Xiaomi at 14%. Further back are Vivo and OPPO at 8% each. Apple, Xiaomi, and Vivo all saw more shipments in Q1 2025, while OPPO dropped by 1% with Samsung’s drop. Every other OEM is included in the “Others,” which did increase by 6% in unit shipments.

For Apple, it looks like the iPhone 16e helped push up its market share, though it does still sit at 19%, despite shipping more units this past quarter. On the contrary, the Galaxy S25 series didn’t do as well for Samsung as the Galaxy S24 series did last year, causing Samsung to drop its shipments. Xiaomi and vivo both had pretty big smartphone launches in the first quarter, though, vivo’s were more mid-range phones, while Xiaomi launched its 15 series at and ahead of MWC in early March.

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Xiaomi is continuing to grow thanks to expansion and EVs

Counterpoint noted in its report that “Xiaomi, continuing its strong sales momentum, gained market share, helped not only by expansion into new markets but also by significant growth in the domestic market, where the brand is enjoying a bigger and more ‘premium’ brand presence thanks to its successful foray into electric vehicles.”

Vivo is also the fastest-growing top-five brand right now, actually jumping into the top five this time around. Vivo’s success is being attributed to its high exposure to the “buoyant China market” as well as its expansion into emerging markets.

HONOR, Huawei, and Motorola are also growing quickly

The firm also noted that HONOR, Huawei and Motorola are growing quite quickly, despite being outside of the top five brands. Huawei was the biggest OEM in China in Q1, while HONOR and Motorola “showed high growth in multiple markets.” Counterpoint also noted that “new technologies like GenAI and foldable will continue, but OEMs need to carefully monitor demand going forward.” This could be a reason why OnePlus decided to skip launching any foldable devices in 2025.

There are some interesting names missing from this list and report. Counterpoint did not mention Google or Pixel at all, nor did they mention OnePlus or realme. All of which seem to be doing pretty well, on all accounts. However, they are all much smaller then the other names mentioned here. Google seems to have given up its market share gains it picked up with the Pixel 9 series, and the Pixel 9a didn’t go on sale until Q2 on April 10. That could change when Counterpoint releases its Q2 numbers.

The post The Galaxy S25 Launch Fell Flat — Now Samsung’s Market Lead Is in Jeopardy appeared first on Android Headlines.