Smartphone competition in 2026 and beyond: regional dynamics matter more than global share

The Smartphone Market Shares Dashboard 2026 provides granular data on OEM smartphone market shares across countries, regions and at the global level, highlighting market leaders, followers and challengers. It is a valuable resource for OEMs looking to refine their growth strategies and targets, as well as for mobile operators, digital service providers and other stakeholders whose businesses rely on smartphone market dynamics and competitive positioning.

This edition of the Industry Checkpoint series focuses on consumer devices, highlighting how the market has changed in the last six months and its implications. The report considers three major developments: accelerating innovation for smart glasses as leading companies try to establish it as the next major consumer platform; smartphone innovation becoming more diverse, from practical to experimental concepts; and chipmakers increasingly designing on-device agentic AI capabilities.

Today, smartphones are the leading digital playground. According to our consumer survey, almost 80% of smartphone users consume digital entertainment services, including video, music and games, on a weekly basis. How can smartphone OEMs capitalise on the prime position that their devices have in digital services consumption? In this report we lay out the five key areas here that smartphone OEMs should focus on. These include implementing bundling strategies, leveraging tech and network advances, and identifying the prime consumer segments for digital services.