Apple leads smartphone market in Q1 2025

US tech giant Apple gained the top spot for global smartphone sales in the first three months of 2025 following the strong traction for its iPhone 16e, particularly in Japan and India.

File photo: iPhone 16e

Apple secures top spot

Data from Counterpoint showed that Apple cornered 19 percent of the smartphone market, despite the declining demand in the United States, Europe, and China.

Counterpoint said that Apple remained the top preference in emerging markets.

A separate report from International Data Corp. (IDC), meanwhile, said that global smartphone shipments in the period just inched up by 1.5 percent.

As the industry sees negative developments due to the controversial tariff policies of US President Donald Trump, big companies like Apple have started exploring ways to cushion the looming impact of higher rates.

Apple, for instance, was reported to arrange chartered cargo flights for 600 tons of iPhones from India to the US.

The recent exemption by the US government pausing smartphone import tariffs from China offers temporary relief for US companies, but heavy reliance on China's supply chain persists amid ongoing tariff volatility, said Ryan Reith, group vice president, worldwide device trackers, IDC.

According to Reith, companies must ramp up their production to ship more units to the US while the exemption rule remains in place.

Source: Reuters