Smartphone industry faces shifting brand loyalty and rising costs in 2026

The global smartphone industry is undergoing significant shifts in 2026, characterized by changing consumer sentiment, rising costs, and evolving hardware trends. According to MBLM’s Brand Intimacy study, Apple has fallen to second place in the technology category for the first time in 16 years, being overtaken by Samsung. This decline is attributed to economic factors such as inflation and wage stagnation affecting brand emotional connections.

In the hardware sector, the foldable smartphone market is expanding rapidly. Huawei leads the Chinese market with its Mate XT2 triple-fold device, while Apple is officially entering the segment with the iPhone Duo.

Economically, the market faces challenges. Counterpoint Research reports a 21% year-on-year decline in global smartphone SoC shipments for Q2 2026, driven by rising memory costs and inventory management. Additionally, smartphone prices are rising globally, with new models seeing a 25% price increase due to the high cost of components and AI integration. This has led to a growing trend in the refurbished market; in Q1 2026, shipments of display panels for repairs and reconditioning (298 million units) exceeded those for new smartphone production (289 million units).