The latest data from the agency Omdia shows that Apple's iPhone shipments in Europe hit a record high in 2025, achieving a year-on-year growth of 6% despite a 1% year-on-year decline in the overall smartphone market. Omdia estimates that Apple shipped approximately 36.9 million iPhones in Europe throughout the year, increasing its market share to 27%, setting a new record in the region.
The report pointed out that the strong performance of iPhone in Europe is closely related to the structural adjustment of the product line and the concentrated release of replacement demand. Among them, the relatively user-friendly iPhone 16e was once considered to be "selling well but not as well as the previous generation iPhone SE" in 2025. However, combined with the final data for the year, the entire product portfolio including iPhone 16, iPhone 16e, iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPhone 17 Pro Max jointly promoted Apple's record-breaking performance in Europe.
According to Omdia analysis, there has been a significant “wave of device replacement” in Europe in the past year, part of which comes from the discontinuation of old models that still use non-USB‑C interfaces, prompting a large number of users to switch to the latest generation models. This also speeds up the transition of users from old phones to new iPhones to a certain extent and increases overall shipments.
In terms of competitive landscape, Samsung will still be the largest smartphone manufacturer in the European market in 2025, shipping approximately 46.6 million units throughout the year, a slight increase from the previous year. Xiaomi ranked third with 21.8 million units shipped, but it fell by about 1% year-on-year. Despite Apple's outstanding performance in terms of share and growth rate, the entire European smartphone market will still record a year-on-year decline of 1% in 2025, and the overall demand in the display industry remains under pressure.
Omdia also predicts that European smartphone shipments may further decline in 2026 due to hardware-level constraints such as tight memory supply and limited processor production capacity. Judging from this outlook, whether Apple can continue to maintain its growth momentum in Europe will largely depend on the resilience of its supply chain and the market appeal of its new models.
From a global perspective, data from another research institution, Counterpoint Research, shows that in 2025, approximately "one in four smartphones will be an iPhone" worldwide, highlighting Apple's dominance in the high-end and mid-to-high-end markets. Among them, the iPhone 17 series has achieved the "best start in recent years" in the Chinese and US markets, which is regarded as a key driving force. However, the iPhone Air, which is positioned as thin and light and uses an all-eSIM solution, has been delayed in China because it no longer supports physical SIM cards, and its market feedback is divided: on the one hand, there are reports that it was sold out within a short time after pre-sales started. On the other hand, some analysts believe that its overall demand is weak and its role in promoting iPhone 17 in China is limited.