Just posted to my Forbes column with a rare headline you don’t often see about a company Apple’s size: it’s still growing faster than everyone else.
In this piece, I dig into new Counterpoint data showing Apple was the fastest-growing major smartphone maker globally last year, hitting 20% market share with 10% year-over-year growth. Strong demand for the iPhone 17, continued momentum from earlier models in markets like India and Japan, and a long-delayed Covid upgrade cycle all combined to give Apple a surprisingly strong 2025 — even as most rivals struggled to grow as quickly.
The twist is what comes next.
With AI data centers soaking up memory supply and driving component costs higher, smartphones are about to get more expensive and harder to build in 2026. That may hurt smaller players the most — and quietly reinforce the advantage of giants like Apple and Samsung, which can absorb higher costs and lean on their scale.