The US smartphone market slowed at the start of the year, with Omdia saying first-quarter 2026 shipments fell 3% year over year to 33.4 million units.
According to the research firm, the decline needs to be read against an unusually high comparison base from the first quarter of 2025, when vendors and carriers built inventory ahead of possible US tariff actions. Omdia also points to a more cautious carrier upgrade environment, rising memory and storage costs, and launch delays that held back some expected premium-device volume.
Even with the overall market down, Apple remained the leading vendor in the quarter. Omdia says the delayed arrival of Samsung’s Galaxy S26 reduced direct high-end Android competition, which helped Apple hold its position. The iPhone 17 family reportedly accounted for 70% of Apple shipments, while aggressive prepaid promotions around the iPhone 15 continued to support demand at lower price points.
Samsung ranked second but saw shipments fall 5% year over year, again because of the later Galaxy S26 launch timing. Even so, Omdia says the S26 family posted a strong early sales trajectory, with preorders up nearly 25% versus the S25 line. During the quarter, Samsung leaned more heavily on prepaid demand for its A-series devices, especially the Galaxy A17.
Motorola was the only major brand in the report to deliver growth, with shipments rising 18% from a year earlier. Omdia attributes that jump mainly to a refreshed Moto G lineup, which represented more than 70% of Motorola’s quarterly volume. Planned price increases in April also encouraged carriers and prepaid channels to stock up in advance.
Google, by contrast, saw shipments decline 7% year over year as the Pixel 10 generation failed to match the momentum of the Pixel 9 family from a year earlier. An earlier Pixel 10a release softened some of the drop, but Omdia says aggressive carrier promotions remain central to Google’s strategy for pushing Pixel devices beyond its core premium audience.
Looking ahead, Omdia expects these pressures to continue through the rest of 2026 and forecasts a 4% full-year decline in US smartphone shipments. Beyond near-term price and channel issues, the report says native AI devices are becoming a longer-term strategic focus, with advances from OpenAI and reported interest from Amazon hinting that AI-driven interfaces could gradually reshape how consumers judge the value of smartphone upgrades.
