IDC: iPhone was China's fastest-growing brand in Q2 2026, up 24.4% in a shrinking market

Apple grew iPhone shipments in China by 24.4% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, making it the fastest-growing major smartphone brand in a market that shrank overall, according to preliminary figures released by research firm IDC on July 14, 2026.¹

The number matters heading into the iPhone 18 cycle because China is Apple's most competitive large market, and the last several quarters had been rough. This is the clearest sign yet that Apple's pricing discipline — not a redesign or a new feature — is what turned the trend around.

The numbers

• Apple iPhone shipments: up 24.4% year over year, the fastest growth of any major vendor.¹
• Total China smartphone market: down 4.3% to roughly 66 million units — a fifth consecutive quarter of decline.
• Apple's market share: rose from 13.9% to 18.1% year over year, second only to Huawei.
• Huawei: up 19.4%, with 22.6% share — still the domestic leader.
• Xiaomi: down 21.7%, the steepest fall among the big brands.¹

Apple and Huawei were the only two major vendors to grow in the quarter. Everyone else contracted along with the broader market.

Why Apple grew while the market fell

IDC attributes the divergence largely to how vendors responded to rising component costs — particularly memory. Memory prices have climbed sharply through 2026, and most Android makers passed that cost on to buyers by raising prices. Apple, by contrast, held its iPhone 17 pricing steady, which made its lineup relatively more attractive as competitors got more expensive.

There is a second effect: warnings of future price increases appear to have pulled some purchases forward. Consumers who expected phones to cost more later bought earlier, and Apple — with a stable, well-understood price ladder — captured a disproportionate share of that early demand.

We covered the underlying cost dynamics in how memory prices are reshaping the market and in Apple's 2026 price increase, explained. This IDC data is the market-share consequence of those forces playing out in China.

What it means for the iPhone 18 launch

Two takeaways for the fall 2026 cycle:

1. Apple enters the iPhone 18 launch with momentum in China. A rising share base is a stronger position to launch from than a shrinking one, and it gives Apple room to absorb some of its own cost increases without immediately losing ground.

2. Pricing is now the swing variable. If Apple raises iPhone 18 Pro prices meaningfully — as several reports suggest it might, given component costs — it risks giving back the pricing advantage that drove this quarter's growth. The company's Q2 result is essentially a demonstration of what steady pricing buys in a cost-inflated market.

What is still uncertain

These are preliminary IDC figures and can be revised. Quarterly shipment estimates from IDC, Canalys, and Counterpoint also frequently differ by a few percentage points because they use different channel-sell-in methodologies. The direction here — Apple up sharply, market down, Xiaomi hit hardest — is consistent enough to be reliable, but treat the exact percentages as estimates until final data lands.

We will update this page if IDC revises the Q2 numbers or if a second research firm reports materially different figures.