India, meanwhile, was without a doubt the biggest nation where Samsung held a clear lead over Apple (but not Vivo) in Q2, with an intriguing new report revealing a major region where the two industry titans are deadlocked. That may sound like a triumph for both mobile hardware heavyweights, but because one of them had a comfortable advantage in Europe in both Q2 2025 and Q1 2026, this draw is guaranteed to feel like a bitter defeat.
Apple's year-on-year progress is simply astounding
Normally, Samsung would likely be very happy to see its quarterly market share jump from 31 to 34 percent in the space of 12 months in the super-competitive and ultra-crowded European landscape.
Samsung's numbers may not look bad... until you notice Apple's mind-blowing surge from Q2 2025 to Q2 2026. | Image by Counterpoint Research
But when Apple can go up from 25 percent of regional smartphone shipments between April and June of last year to a 34 percent slice of the pie in Q2 2026, it's hard to view Samsung's 3 percent share boost as a particularly impressive achievement.
Counterpoint Research perfectly describes the latest European improvement of the old continent's former solo leader as "marginal growth", while Apple's incredible 9 percent market share expansion is simply labeled as "very impressive", especially in Western Europe, which is apparently an area that performed "better than expected", most likely thanks primarily to super-strong iPhone demand.
Apple's result is made that much more remarkable by the continent's 10 percent decline
Believe it or not, iPhone demand somehow grew stronger in Europe while the continent's overall smartphone sales essentially fell off a cliff. We're talking a massive 10 percent drop from Q2 2025 to a 35 million total that represents the region's lowest second-quarter score since 2023.
The iPhone 17 is clearly a massive European hit. | Image by PhoneArena
Clearly, brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, Honor, and "others" are largely to blame for this dramatic decline, as industry-wide component cost increases mainly impacted the low-end and mid-range segments where these companies normally excel.
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Obviously, high-end phones became more expensive in Europe in recent months as well, but cash-strapped consumers are far more likely to delay their purchases than those who could (and who probably can still) afford Galaxy S-series or Z-series flagships.
Why do you think Apple is doing so well in Europe?
The budget division was especially "squeezed" in Eastern Europe, which relies a lot more on devices from those three aforementioned Chinese OEMs (and others like them), and unfortunately, this trend is expected to continue and possibly deepen in the near future.
Things are looking bad for everyone... besides Apple
Yes, European smartphone sales are forecasted to drop even further over the "next few quarters", but Apple will likely manage to "significantly outperform the market for the foreseeable future."
The iPhone 17 Pro's sequel is expected to sell like hotcakes even at a significantly higher price than its predecessor. | Image by PhoneArena
Does that mean the Cupertino-based tech giant will finish the year in first place on the old continent in addition to the world as a whole? That's definitely possible given that Samsung held an advantage of less than 10 million units in the region at the end of 2025, at least according to Omdia research.
Of course, Apple will need to claim some decisive victories in Q3 and especially Q4 2026 after Samsung won the Q1 battle with a 12 percent lead in market share. That's not going to be easy if the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max end up costing as much as some analysts expect, but that's what makes following this war for mobile industry supremacy (both at a global and regional level) so exciting.
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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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