Global smartphone SoC shipments have been declining for several reasons and have been continuously declining since at least Q2, 2026, and that trend continues as new reports show that global smartphone SoC shipments are on the decline again for Q3, 2026 according to new data from Counterpoint Research.
Compared to the last quarter, the decline is a bigger difference between this time last year in Q3 and now it was from Q2 2025 to Q2 2026. As reported in July, shipments fell 15% year-over-year from Q2 2025 to Q2 2026. From Q3 2025 to Q3 202 was significantly more significant 202. Counterpoint reported that shipments fell by 21% year over year. In contrast, global smartphone shipments also declined for most of the year. Q2 2025 to Q2 2026 saw a decline of 6%, from 288.9 million units to 277 million units.
Overall, smartphone SoC shipments are down 21%, but not all manufacturers actually saw a decline. MediaTek and Qualcomm are the two largest companies when it comes to the total number of global shipments, and they also saw the biggest declines. MediaTek, for its part, went from 34% to 28%. Qualcomm, meanwhile, went from 25% to 22%.
Unisoc was the only other manufacturer to decline and it only decreased from 14% to 13%. Apple, Samsung and smaller manufacturers climbed into the “other” category, all seeing gains. The other category increased from 4% to 8%, Samsung increased from 6% to 8%, and Apple with the largest gain of the three groups increased from 17% to 21%, almost surpassing Qualcomm in total shipments for the quarter. Overall for the year, shipments are expected to fall a total of 20%, with further declines continuing in 2027 3%-4%.