In 2014, Apple and Samsung were duking it out to rule the U.S. smartphone market. Samsung was selling devices with large screens, and iPhone fans were demanding a response.
It took Apple some time, but the company finally released the iPhone 6, breaking with previous iterations and giving consumers a large-screen option. The iPhone won.
But more than a decade later, recent smartphone sales and shipment figures signal that the Apple-Samsung fight has returned. And once again, it’s all about the screen.
In the second quarter, shipments from Samsung surged in the U.S., with its market share rising from 23% to 31% from the prior period, according to data from Canalys. Apple’s market share during the quarter declined to 49% from 56%.
Apple remains on top of the U.S. smartphone market, taking the majority of new smartphone sales in the U.S. It’s often in second place around the world, but the recent slips points to turbulence for Apple for the first time in well over a decade.
That’s one reason investors have sent Apple shares down 7.5% this year, underperforming all of the U.S. megacap tech companies other than Tesla. Samsung’s stock, meanwhile, is up about 35% in 2025.
In July, Samsung introduced a pair of innovative new phones that feature foldable screens. One model, the Z Fold 7, can effectively turn into a tablet, while the Z Flip resembles an old-school flip phone with modern smartphone features. They were added to Samsung’s catalog of phones released this spring under its Galaxy brand, including a thin-and-light phone called the Galaxy S25 Edge.
The devices are also getting a lot of traction on social media, particularly around durability tests.
One user posted a livestream that showed him bending the Z Fold 7 over 200,000 times in a row. The video has been clipped and shared widely on social media, with one version of the clip accumulating more than 15 million views on YouTube.
In the past month, Samsung’s premium devices, including the Z Fold 7, were mentioned over 50,000 times on social media, and 83% of those mentions were positive or neutral, according to data from Sprout Social, a social media analytics company.
The market share numbers aren’t just the result of user preferences. Much of the shift in shipment figures in the June quarter, analysts said, can be attributed to tariffs, which are causing “disruption” in the industry as smartphone makers use different strategies to minimize the impact on their business.
But Samsung’s gains also reflect the company’s ability to offer a much wider range of products at different prices compared to Apple. That includes low-end phones, which accounted for much of Samsung’s second-quarter U.S. improvement, as well as high-end devices that cost more than any individual iPhone.
Samsung’s Galaxy and Z phone lineup “stretches from $650 up to $2,400. That is a massive span of devices,” said Canalys analyst Runar Bjorhovde.“There is an idea that you can target people at every single price point, and you can meet them at every spot.”
The iPhone has pretty much looked the same since 2017 — a rectangular piece of glass with a touchscreen on the front, and a few cameras on the back. These days, the company offers a series of four slates ranging from $829 to $1,599. Samsung and others are starting to go beyond the so-called candy bar shape and experimenting with new form factors.
Apple is expected to start doing the same — beginning with a potential launch next month of a slimmer iPhone that will compete with Samsung’s Galaxy Edge.
“Apple is clearly betting that its 5.5mm Air model is going to lift its fortunes as testing suggests a strong desire for the new form factor,” wrote Loop Capital managing director John Donovan in May.
JPMorgan Chase analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote in a report last month that Apple may release a folding phone next year to compete with Samsung’s Z Fold.
“Investor focus has already turned to the 2026 fall launches with Apple expected to launch its first foldable iPhone as part of the iPhone 18 lineup in September 2026,” Chatterjee wrote.
Trying new form factors offers Apple the opportunity to sell devices at higher prices, according to Bjorhovde.
Apple’s most expensive phone, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, currently starts at $1,199 for 256GB of storage and can go up to $1,599 for a version with 1TB of storage. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which was announced last week, starts at $1,999 for the 256GB version and tops out at $2,419 for the 1TB version.
Chatterjee said he thinks Apple’s version of a folding phone could start at $1,999. Apple declined to comment.
A person holds a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 phone during an event in New York, U.S., July 8, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Folding phones finally mature
Samsung’s first folding phone was released in 2019, but got off to a rocky start. The initial launch was delayed after reviewers — including CNBC — discovered that the early devices would break along their folding crease.
But Samsung says this time is different, and that folding phones are finally ready to go mainstream, especially with respect to durability.
“There really are no longer trade-offs towards owning a foldable device,” said Drew Blackard, vice president of mobile product management at Samsung Electronics America.
The South Korean company doesn’t provide sales numbers, but Blackard said the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the latest version, had 25% more preorders than any previous Samsung folding phone and that sales are outpacing the device’s predecessor by nearly 50%.
“Samsung with the foldable is able to actually optimize for innovation,” said Bjorhovde. “Try to be ahead, show that something is different, and there’s a certain halo effect from that.”
According to Counterpoint Research, a firm that estimates smartphone sales to customers, Samsung’s sell-through increased 16% during the June quarter, thanks to demand for high-end devices, including a “slight boost” from the slim S25 Edge.
The rise of artificial intelligence is also heralding new form factors for consumer electronics that could one day replace the iPhone.
OpenAI in May acquired the startup of former Apple design guru Jony Ive for $6.5 billion. The AI startup plans to develop the next generation of hardware, and other AI startups have released pins, pendants and glasses that rely on users’ voice to control the devices.
Samsung devices, as well as other Android phones, get access to Google’s Gemini, which is widely considered to be one of the best AI models alongside OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Gemini has several features that users can’t get with Siri and Apple Intelligence.
Blackard said folding phones, with their larger displays, are well suited for AI. Google’s circle-to-search feature, which allows a user to simply circle something on the screen that they’d like to learn more about, is an example, Blackard said.
On a Samsung folding phone, he said, users can still see the original screen with the content they circled, as well as another screen with supplementary information.
“It’s much more productive being able to go back and forth,” Blackard said.
Investors have worried that Apple’s AI delays, including its next-generation Siri that’s now scheduled to come out next year, could start hurting sales. But many analysts say that Apple’s brand loyalty and lock-in will give it a period of years before iPhone customers start defecting for competitors.
Chatterjee told CNBC that Apple’s strategy with devices is to wait until a technology is ready for the mainstream before embracing it. That time may be now for foldable devices.
Apple has “never been about trying to be the first to market,” Chatterjee said. “It’s about being watchful, seeing a technology mature, knowing that there are no big roadblocks to that technology adoption, and then moving ahead.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, and Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, shake hands outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of some of Australia’s largest critical metals and rare earths companies surged on Tuesday following the announcement of a massive minerals deal between Washington and Canberra worth up to $8.5 billion.
The agreement — signed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday — includes funding for multiple projects aimed at boosting the supply of key materials used in defense manufacturing and energy security.
Lynas Rare Earths, Australia’s largest rare earths producer by market capitalization, jumped about 4.7% in early Asia trading. Mineral sand miner Iluka Resources advanced more than 9% while lithium producer Pilbara Minerals added roughly 5%.
Other smaller rare earth miners also made gains, with VHM soaring around 30%, while Northern Minerals popped over 16%. Meanwhile, Latrobe Magnesium, Australia’s primary producer of the critical metal magnesium, rose nearly 47%.
NYSE-listed Alcoa, which is developing a project in Western Australia to recover and refine the critical metal gallium, was identified as one of the two priority projects under the new minerals deal. Washington will make an equity investment in the initiative.
Shares of Alcoa, also traded on the Australian Securities Exchange through depositary receipts, rose nearly 10%.
Rare earths and critical metals are essential for high-tech products such as electric vehicles, semiconductors and defense equipment.
China, the global leader in the production of rare earths and many other critical minerals, has tightened export controls on the materials amid a trade war with the U.S., accelerating international efforts to diversify global supply chains.
Albanese said the two countries will each contribute $1 billion over the next six months for projects that are “immediately available.”
However, a White House fact sheet later stated that Washington and Canberra will invest more than $3 billion in critical mineral projects over the same period, describing the agreement as a “framework.”
The White House also said that the Export-Import Bank of the United States will issue seven letters of interest for more than $2.2 billion in financing, potentially unlocking up to $5 billion in total investment.
Consumers experience the iPhone 17 in an Apple store in Shanghai, China on October 13, 2025.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Critics’ displeasure at the iPhone 17 Pro’s fluorescent orange color aside, Apple’s “Cosmic Orange” smartphone has charmed fans — and investors.
The newest iPhone 17 series, which includes the base iPhone 17 and its overachieving Pro and skinny Air siblings — that come in colors other than orange, to be clear — has been outselling the previous one in the U.S. and China, according to Counterpoint data. In fact, the iPhone Air sold out within minutes of going on sale in China, reported the South China Morning Post.
Shares of Apple popped nearly 4% on the news and closed at an all-time high. That must be welcome news for CEO Tim Cook and investors, as the stock has been one of the biggest laggards in the Magnificent 7 group. That jump puts Apple’s year-to-date gains at around 5%, compared with Nvidia’s 36% and Meta’s 25%.
Another member of the Mag 7, however, had a bumpy Monday. Amazon’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, suffered an outage. Sites such as Reddit and Snapchat went dark, plunging millions, including yours truly, into existential crises. Shares of Amazon still increased around 1.6%.
U.S. markets also rose more broadly, with major indexes ending Monday in the green. This week, investors will be keeping their eye on the U.S.’ trade developments with China as well as earnings reports from companies such as Netflix, Tesla and Intel.
What you need to know today
And finally…
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outside the West Wing of the White House on October 17, 2025, in Washington, DC.
U.S. President Donald Trump held a tense meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, with the potential supply of U.S. long-range cruise missiles, Tomahawks, on the agenda.
Zelenskyy walked away from the meeting not only empty-handed, but apparently upbraided by Trump, who said Ukraine should accept Russia’s terms for ending the war — by handing over the entire eastern territory of Donbas, the epicenter of ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press after disembarking from Air Force One upon arrival at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, Oct. 17, 2025, as he travels to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump is stepping up his calls to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco at the very moment that the city is undergoing a post-pandemic resurgence, propelled by artificial intelligence.
Crime rates are down 30% from 2024, homicide levels hit their lowest levels in 70 years and car break-ins haven’t been this low in 22 years. Meanwhile, event bookings and tourism are on the rise, residential real estate is becoming more scarce and the office market is heating up.
Business momentum in the city is largely built on the AI boom.
New data from CBRE show venture capital funding in 2025 is expected to surpass the record high of $276 billion hit in 2021. The bulk of that investment has been in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where 80% of AI venture funding through the third quarter has been targeted to the tune of $115 billion.
By the end of the September, the San Francisco Bay Area was already 35% above its previous annual investment peak, according to CBRE’s VC Funding analysis.
“San Franciscans are feeling positive about the direction of our city once again,” Daniel Lurie, the city’s Democratic mayor said in a statement last week released by Governor Gavin Newsom’s office. “And we are going to continue working every single day to build on this progress and keep our city safe 365 days a year.”
The statement was meant to tout the successful efforts of local law enforcement ahead of Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference last week. The issue became particularly controversial after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told the New York Times that he’d support Trump’s call for federal troops to be sent to San Francisco. His sentiments were publicly supported by Elon Musk and David Sacks, high-profile techies with close ties to the Trump Administration.
On Friday, facing mounting criticism, Benioff backtracked, posting on X that, “Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials, and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history, I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco.”
The Trump administration recently deployed the National Guard to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, sparking protests and lawsuits. Over the weekend, President Trump repeated his plans to send troops to San Francisco, telling Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that, “the difference is I think they want us in San Francisco.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the President’s plans.
In a statement late Monday, Lurie said San Francisco law enforcement has partnerships with federal agencies to deal with drug crimes and additional troops aren’t necessary.
“I am deeply grateful to the members of our military for their service to our country, but the National Guard does not have the authority to arrest drug dealers — and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to get fentanyl off the streets or make our city safer,” Lurie said.
Lurie previously cheered the safety of events that took place in the last week including Dreamforce and No Kings Protests over the weekend. In contrast to Newsom, Lurie has taken a far less combative approach to Trump since taking office in January.
“San Francisco is on the rise,” Lurie wrote in a post on X on Oct. 12, a couple days before Dreamforce was set to begin.
The data support that view.
Tourism spending is expected to increase modestly this year to $9.35 billion, up from $9.26 billion, according to the San Francisco Travel Association. Conferences, sporting events such as NBA All-Star weekend, and music festivals like Outside Lands have contributed to the growth.
The commercial real estate market is also recovering as Covid-era work from home policies get slowly unwound.
Tech companies increased their share of leasing activity by square footage to 53% in 2025, the highest since 2019, CBRE said. Apartment rental prices are surging as well. Multifamily rentals increased 6% in August, much more than the 3.75% jump in Chicago, the city with the second-steepest climb, according to CoStar.
Ted Egan, chief economist for San Francisco, told CNBC in an interview that “housing is probably as cheap as it’s going to get for a while.”
There remains plenty of room for improvement. The city has lost key tenants in its downtown shopping district in recent years, including its flagship Nordstrom store. The Nordstrom location was part of San Francisco City Centre, which was the city’s largest mall but is now effectively empty.
Office vacancies remained high at 33.6% in the third quarter, according to Cushman and Wakefield. Homelessness and open drug use are longstanding issues, heavily concentrated in certain parts of the city.
But Egan said that, in addition to the data, he’s noticed a significant change in the city’s health.
“It seems cleaner and safer now than it’s ever been in any of the time that I’ve been here,” said Egan, who’s worked in San Francisco for more than 20 years. “I still think it’s a great place to move to because it’s got tons of economic opportunity. It’s got tons of long-term economic strengths for people starting out in their career.”