In a noteworthy report released today, Canalys reveals that although the US smartphone market experienced minimal movement in total shipments during Q2 2025, significant growth was noted for Samsung and India, while Apple faced an unusual double-digit decline.
### Samsung Reduces Apple’s Market Share Advantage by Almost Half
As per Canalys, the US smartphone market saw only a 1% increase in Q2 2025, reaching 27.1 million units, up from 26.7 million the previous year. Samsung exhibited the most robust performance among vendors, shipping 8.3 million units, a 38% year-over-year rise, with its market share climbing from 23% to 31%.
In contrast, Apple experienced an 11% decrease in shipments to 13.3 million units, down from 14.9 million last year. Despite this drop, Apple retained its position at the top with a 49% share of the US market, surpassing Samsung’s 31%.
This signifies that Samsung has managed to narrow the market share gap from 33% a year ago to 18% in the last quarter. Runar Bjorhovde, Senior Analyst at Canalys, attributed this to vendors preloading devices and sustaining elevated inventory levels in anticipation of possible tariffs later in the year. Apple rapidly increased its inventories towards the end of Q1 and aimed to uphold this level in Q2. Samsung expanded its inventory stock in Q2, driving its shipments mainly through Galaxy A-series devices. However, with the market only growing by 1%, it reflects weak demand amidst a tightening economic climate.
For context, in Q2 of the previous year, Canalys noted a 1% annual growth and a 19% market share for Samsung, while Apple secured second place with a 6% annual growth and a 16% market share.
### Made in India is the New Made in China
While it might be intriguing to analyze which vendors are thriving or struggling year-over-year, a more captivating narrative this quarter is the origin of these smartphones. For the first time, India has surpassed China as the predominant manufacturing center for smartphones shipped to the United States.
This change is primarily attributed to escalating trade and tariff issues, leading to a significant reduction in the share of US smartphone shipments produced in China, plummeting from 61% in Q2 2024 to just 25% this quarter. On the flip side, India surged from 13% to 44%, achieving a remarkable 240% year-over-year growth as vendors hurried to diversify their supply chains away from China.
Sanyam Chaurasia, Principal Analyst at Canalys, remarked that India became the foremost manufacturing hub for smartphones sold in the US for the first time in Q2 2025, largely propelled by Apple’s expedited supply chain transition to India. Apple has increased its production capacity in India as part of its ‘China Plus One’ strategy, allocating most of its export capacity in India to cater to the US market thus far in 2025.
Canalys’ report further indicated that Vietnam experienced a 6% growth as a smartphone manufacturing destination for the US, now comprising 30% of total shipments.
