The global demand for Android smartphones has grown tremendously over the years.
During the first nine months of 2025, the top four Android smartphone vendors shipped more than 464 million devices, 16 million more than in the same period last year, accounting for 49% of global smartphone sales.
Most of that growth came from rising Chinese competition, which continued its impressive 2024 performance, further eroding Samsung’s market share.
According to data from Jemlit.com, although Samsung Galaxy remains the most popular Android smartphone globally, its market share shrank to only 5.4% in November.
Although Samsung’s smartphone shipments have seen three straight quarters of growth in 2025, rising by 0.6%, 7.9% and 6.3% year-over-year, both Apple and rising Chinese competition continue to eat into its market share.
The South Korean tech giant managed to stay competitive in 2025 by relying on strong sales in its premium segment, including Galaxy S and Z models, where Chinese brands still fall behind.
The smartphone giant has also boosted its mid-range Galaxy A series to defend its market share in regions where Xiaomi, Vivo, and Transsion are growing the fastest.
Although it remained at the top of the global smartphone market, both its overall market share and the share of its Galaxy line within the Android ecosystem are far from where they were just a few years ago.
According to the latest AppBrain data, Samsung held 30.5% of the global smartphone market in November, well ahead of the second-ranked Xiaomi, which had a 15.9% share of total sales, but still nearly 5% below its market share in November 2022.
Vivo ranked third with an 11.2% share, only 1.2% ahead of another Chinese vendor, Oppo. Realme and Honor were far behind these figures, with 5.2% and 3.7%, while Infinix and Amazon followed with 3.4% and 3.1% shares, respectively.
The list of the most popular Android smartphones also shows that Samsung’s dominance is fading.
Although Galaxy models make up seven of the eight most popular Android devices among AppBrain users, their combined market share was only 5.4% in November, marking a 0.5% drop in just three months and a two per cent decline over the past three years.
Samsung Galaxy A12 remains the top pick among Android users, with a 1.2% market share last week, nearly half of what it held in November 2022.
The Galaxy A13 and A15 models follow, with one per cent and 0.7% shares, respectively.
Even with rising Chinese competition from Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Transsion eating into its market share, Samsung still makes nearly a third of global Android smartphone sales.
Although its share shrank by almost four per cent over the past three years, Samsung held 30.5% of the Android market in November, well ahead of the second-ranked Xiaomi.
The largest Chinese smartphone vendor hit a 14.3% market share this month, followed by Vivo at 11.2% and Oppo at 10%. Far behind, Realme rounded off the top five with a 5.2% share in the Android market.
Also, according to StatCounter, Android remains the leading mobile operating system worldwide, with a 72.6% market share last month, 2.6 times more than iOS.
