The world's best-selling mobile device is helping Apple in more ways than one. | Image by PhoneArena
While market research firms tend to primarily focus on shipment reports when ranking the world's top handset vendors, something tells me that companies like Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo often pay more attention to a different indicator of their global success (and financial stability).
I'm talking about the actual revenues generated by said smartphone sales every quarter, which is an area that's always dominated by one company. That's obviously been the case in Q1 2026 as well, but if you were wondering what kind of advantage Apple holds over its main rival in this field, the answer is... a pretty big one.
There's no touching the revenue king
You know how it's still not clear if Apple or Samsung won the global smartphone volume battle for the first three months of this year? That ambiguity definitely doesn't extend to revenues, where "sustained demand" for the base iPhone 17 and the state-of-the-art iPhone 17 Pro Max nearly pushed Apple to the 50 percent mark.
That's a massive gap between Apple and Samsung in global revenue, as well as between Samsung and the Oppo-Xiaomi-Vivo group. | Image by Counterpoint Research
That's right, almost half of the world's Q1 2026 smartphone revenue went to Cupertino, jumping from "only" 43 percent this time last year and, believe it or not, representing a decline from what Apple earned in the final three months of 2025. Among the top five brands, Apple unsurprisingly registered the largest year-on-year progress in this department, at a whopping 22 percent, although Samsung also saw its revenue score go up by a promising 4 percent.
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Obviously, however, that means the gap between the mobile industry's two biggest earners is now even larger than back in Q1 2025, and despite "strong response" for the Galaxy S26 series (and the S26 Ultra in particular), Samsung can't realistically hope to significantly narrow that difference anytime soon.
An iPhone's average price is nearly thrice as high as a Galaxy handset
Let that phrase sink in. And now let's quickly talk numbers. Thanks to the massively successful iPhone 17 family, Apple's global average selling price (ASP) has incredibly risen from $816 during the opening quarter of last year to $908 in Q1 2026.
There's really no comparing average iPhone prices with Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi ASPs. | Image by Counterpoint Research
Samsung can also find a little solace in its own year-on-year improvement from $326 to $340, but clearly, that latter figure qualifies as a failure for a company so focused on heavily advertising $1,000+ devices like the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Of course, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi's ASPs are even lower (as are their global revenue shares compared to Apple and Samsung's numbers), and despite all three of those brands (slightly) improving their prices as well, Samsung's silver medal position looks fairly safe for the foreseeable future, especially if the S26 Ultra continues to sell like hotcakes.
The industry is not in such a bad state... yet
While smartphone shipments have essentially been stagnant in the first quarter of this year and are widely expected to fall off a cliff by the end of 2026 as a consequence of rising prices around the world, the same price hikes have boosted global revenues by 8 percent year-on-year... before likely causing an indirect decline over the next few quarters.
Depending on who you ask, it was either Apple or Samsung who led the smartphone market in shipments in Q1 2026. | Image by Counterpoint Research
The reason for that is prices will probably keep going up for both low- and high-end Android handsets in many key regions, which will negatively impact demand and ultimately shrink revenues, as well as sales figures.
Still, there's a very good chance that revenues will drop by a much smaller margin than volumes (especially if Apple manages to keep its iPhone prices largely unchanged), and ASPs could actually continue to grow after reaching an all-time Q1 record of $399. Shipments and revenues, meanwhile, are likely to "substantially recover" only in late 2027... and that's based on current predictions, which could, of course, prove inaccurate in the long run.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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