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Home › News › #2026-10-31-omdia-q3-2026-smartphone-shipments-down-20

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Omdia: شحنات الهواتف هبطت 20% في الربع الثالث — أسوأ ربع ثالث من 2013، وآبل الوحيدة اللي ما خسرت

Omdia: smartphone shipments fell 20% in Q3, the worst third quarter since 2013, and Apple is the only one that did not lose

by Slorks 2026-10-31 0 0 replies
Machine-translated — the Arabic text is the original
Omdia: شحنات الهواتف هبطت 20% في الربع الثالث — أسوأ ربع ثالث من 2013، وآبل الوحيدة اللي ما خسرتالصورة: GSMArena

The number that sums up 2026: 254.7 million smartphones shipped worldwide in Q3 according to Omdia, down 20% from a year earlier, the lowest third quarter since 2013. Not because people stopped wanting phones; prices rose because of the memory chip crunch, so brands trimmed lineups, adjusted RAM and storage and focused on profitable markets.

Smartphone shipments Q3 2026
The top five control 74% of the market, but four of them shrank — Photo: GSMArena

The numbers

Samsung57.8M, −5%, 23% share
Apple56.5M, flat, 22% share
Xiaomi30.7M, −29%, 12% share
Oppo23.4M, −39%, 9% share
vivo19.3M, −33%, 8% share
Others67M, −28%, 26% share
Omdia forecastFull-year 2026 down 12%, declining more slowly in 2027

The irony landed the same day: Samsung announced KRW 107.4 trillion in quarterly operating profit, the first tech company past 100 trillion, with 106.5 trillion of it from chips and memory (HBM4 and server SSDs) while the phone division lost 0.6 trillion. The company selling you the phone profits from the memory surge that made it pricier.

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Why it matters

This explains everything we saw this month: the S26 Ultra went up $100, Samsung cut Galaxy A production 20%, and S27 leaks talk about 8GB of RAM and a $1,500 start. Chinese brands are hit hardest because they earn less per device, so expect narrower Xiaomi, Oppo and vivo lineups in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in 2027 and fewer mid-range deals. Apple, flat with high margins, is the biggest beneficiary of a shrinking market.

My take

A market down 20% and Samsung’s profit exploding the same day: not a demand crisis but a transfer from phone buyers to memory makers. My advice: if your phone works and gets updates, 2026 is not the year to upgrade. If you must, buy now before the 2027 generation arrives pricier with less RAM, and focus on the tier brands will not sacrifice: flagships. The mid-range pays for this crunch first.

Sources: Omdia · GSMArena · Android Headlines · نتائج سامسونج — GSMArena

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