Apple’s iPhone holds up while global smartphone shipments hit a 13-year low as memory crunch persists

Global smartphone shipments fell to their lowest level since 2013 in the second quarter, according to a Counterpoint report cited by Yahoo Finance. The downturn points to a supply and demand environment that has stayed difficult for handset makers, even as some brands found pockets of momentum.

The report links the weak shipment picture to a broader memory component crisis. Memory chips are a critical input for smartphones, covering both storage and working memory (often described as “RAM”). When memory supply is constrained or priced unfavorably, device makers can face production limits or cost pressures, which can weigh on volume across the wider market.

Even with the market shrinking, Counterpoint said Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Pixel “shine” in Q2. That phrasing suggests the two brands either gained share, maintained stronger sell-through, or both, relative to peers during a quarter when overall shipments were declining sharply.

For Apple, the iPhone line remains the centerpiece of its hardware business and a major driver of ecosystem activity, since many Apple services (such as payments, media subscriptions, and cloud features) are tied to the devices people already own. In a market where industry-wide unit movement is contracting, the ability of iPhone to perform comparatively better can still matter for Apple’s revenue mix and margins, even if the company does not necessarily need the category to grow.

Google’s Pixel phones are also a key hardware platform for the company’s Android strategy and its push into software-led features, including camera processing and on-device services. Counterpoint’s comment about Pixel’s relative strength indicates that, despite the same supply-side pressures weighing on the sector, Google found a way to compete effectively enough to stand out in Q2.

The headline number from Counterpoint, described in the cited report as “the lowest level since 2013,” indicates how unusual the quarter was in terms of global volume. When a market hits multi-decade lows, it typically reflects a combination of weaker end-demand, constrained product availability, and promotion-driven trade-offs that can alter how brands allocate supply and pricing.

Still, the cited coverage does not provide the specific Counterpoint figures in the information available here. It does not disclose the magnitude of iPhone or Pixel share changes, the exact Q2 shipment totals, or how memory availability varied by component type (for example, storage versus RAM). Without those details, it is not possible to quantify how much of the “shine” came from better demand versus better supply.

What to watch next is whether the memory component situation loosens, and whether the brand-specific outperformance mentioned by Counterpoint holds up into later quarters. If memory constraints ease, shipment recovery could be uneven, and brands positioned well on supply continuity could benefit more than those facing longer production bottlenecks. If constraints persist, relative winners like iPhone and Pixel may continue to gain share at the expense of weaker peers, but the overall category would likely remain under pressure.