SAN FRANCISCO — Apple’s iPhone 17 was the world’s best-selling smartphone in the second quarter of 2026, extending its lead for a second consecutive quarter even as the broader global smartphone market contracted, according to new data from Counterpoint Research.

The base iPhone 17 captured 6% of all global smartphone unit sales during the April-to-June period, according to Counterpoint’s Global Handset Model Sales Tracker. Apple didn’t just take the top spot — the company swept the entire podium, with the iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone 17 Pro finishing second and third, respectively.

A clean sweep for Apple

Apple’s dominance extended well beyond the top three positions. The company secured five of the top 10 spots on Counterpoint’s list, with the iPhone 17e ranking seventh and the iPhone 16 rounding out the list in tenth place. Samsung claimed the remaining five spots in the top 10, led by its Galaxy S26 Ultra, which ranked as the best-selling Android smartphone of the quarter.

Together, Apple and Samsung’s combined share of the top 10 accounted for 26% of all global smartphone unit sales, up two percentage points from a year earlier and marking the highest concentration ever recorded for a June quarter, according to Counterpoint.

Growth against a shrinking market

What makes Apple’s performance particularly notable is the backdrop against which it occurred. The overall global smartphone market declined 11% year-over-year during the quarter, yet Apple’s unit sales still managed to grow.

“Apple’s unit sales grew 5% YoY despite a broader market decline,” Karn Chauhan, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in the firm’s report.

Chauhan pointed to strength in several key regions as a driver of that growth. “iPhone sales increased across India, Japan, and the MEA, and nearly doubled in South Korea in Q2 2026, driven by the iPhone 17 series,” he said, using an abbreviation for the Middle East and Africa region.

Why the base model keeps winning

According to Counterpoint’s analysis, much of the base iPhone 17’s continued success stems from upgrades that narrowed the traditional performance gap between Apple’s standard and Pro model lineups, making the entry-level device a more compelling purchase relative to its pricier siblings. At the same time, strong demand for the premium iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models was reinforced by trade-in programs, promotional offers and more accessible financing options that made the higher-end phones easier for consumers to afford.

Counterpoint also noted that rising prices across the broader smartphone industry, driven in part by a global shortage of memory chips, have pushed some consumers toward higher-end devices they might not have previously considered, a trend the firm said has further strengthened Apple’s competitive position. As some of Apple’s closest rivals raised prices to cope with the same component shortage, the relative value proposition of the iPhone 17 lineup became more attractive by comparison, according to 9to5Mac’s reporting on the Counterpoint data.

The iPhone 17e’s role

Beyond the flagship and Pro models, Apple’s budget-friendly iPhone 17e also helped reinforce the company’s broad presence on the sales charts. Analysts noted that the model’s addition of MagSafe wireless charging support and higher base storage at the same price point as its predecessor, combined with carrier promotions, helped it maintain strong appeal in key markets such as the United States and Japan.

A pattern building since launch

Thursday’s report builds on a trend Counterpoint had already flagged earlier this year. The base iPhone 17 was also named the world’s best-selling smartphone in the first quarter of 2026, a result that followed a typical pattern in which non-Pro iPhone models tend to gain sales momentum in the months following their initial launch. What stood out in the second-quarter data, however, was that the iPhone 17 not only maintained its lead but continued gaining ground, defying the usual seasonal patterns that can see interest cool as a device ages within its release cycle.

That continuity marks a shift from the prior year’s cycle. In the second quarter of 2025, it was the iPhone 16 — not a newer model — that topped Counterpoint’s rankings, having taken the lead in the first quarter of that year and extended its dominance through the summer ahead of the iPhone 17’s eventual launch. Apple also swept the podium that quarter, though it did not claim a fourth spot in the top 10, unlike this year’s performance.

Samsung holds its ground in the Android race

While Apple dominated the overall rankings, Samsung notched its own milestone within the Android segment. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s position as the best-selling Android smartphone of the quarter marked the first time an ultra-premium Android device has led Android sales specifically during a June quarter, according to Counterpoint’s analysis, with the model climbing five spots compared with its predecessor’s performance in the prior year.

A market reshaped by scarcity

Counterpoint tied the historically high concentration of sales among the top 10 models directly to the ongoing global shortage of RAM and memory chips, which has forced smartphone makers across the industry to narrow their focus toward a smaller number of premium and high-volume models rather than spreading resources across a wide range of devices. That dynamic appears to have benefited established players like Apple and Samsung disproportionately, as consumers gravitated toward well-known, well-supported flagship options amid rising costs and constrained supply chains.

What it means going forward

With Apple’s next major iPhone launch already on the horizon and the current generation continuing to outperform a contracting global market, the company heads into the second half of 2026 with clear momentum. Whether that momentum continues once newer models — including a widely rumored foldable iPhone — enter the market later this year remains to be seen, but for now, Counterpoint’s data makes clear that the iPhone 17 series has cemented itself as the dominant force in global smartphone sales for two quarters running.

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CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple has set Sept. 9 as the date for its biggest product event of the year, an announcement that carries extra weight this time around: it will mark the first major keynote led by incoming Chief Executive John Ternus and is expected to introduce the company’s long-awaited first foldable iPhone.

Apple confirmed the date Wednesday, sending media invitations carrying the tagline “Surprise and shine” alongside an image of a glowing Apple logo. The event will take place at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, and will be livestreamed on the company’s website, according to the invitation.

A new era begins

The timing of the event is no coincidence. Ternus, Apple’s longtime senior vice president of hardware engineering, is scheduled to officially become chief executive on Sept. 1, just over a week before he takes the stage for his first major product launch in the role. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook, who has led Apple for 15 years, will transition to the role of executive chairman.

Ternus’s promotion was announced in April and has been widely viewed as a signal of Apple’s renewed focus on its core device business. Unlike Cook, who built his reputation as a supply chain, sales and finance expert, Ternus is a hardware engineer by trade, and Bloomberg News has reported that the timing of his transition to CEO was deliberately designed to coincide with the debut of Apple’s first foldable device.

Bank of America analysts framed the moment in stark terms in an August research note, writing that “Ternus could cement Apple’s device dominance in an AI enabled era,” according to CNN.

The foldable iPhone takes center stage

The centerpiece of the September event is expected to be Apple’s first foldable iPhone, a device the company has been rumored to be developing for years. As the iPhone approaches the 20th anniversary of its original introduction, the foldable design would represent the most significant change to the product’s physical form since it launched.

Apple enters a foldable smartphone market currently dominated by Samsung Electronics, which has spent years refining its Galaxy Z Fold line and, earlier this year, unveiled a new passport-sized foldable device as it works to defend its position ahead of Apple’s entry. Samsung’s senior vice president of mobile product management, Drew Blackard, told CNN in July that broader visibility for the foldable category, driven in part by new entrants, would likely benefit the segment overall.

Analysts expect Apple’s foldable iPhone to feature a display roughly comparable in size to an iPad mini when unfolded. Research firm IDC projects Apple will ship more than 17 million foldable iPhones by 2027, and forecasts foldable phone shipments industrywide will rise 12.6% this year even as overall global smartphone shipments are expected to fall by a record 16.7%.

What else Apple is expected to announce

Beyond the foldable device, Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at the September event. Reports have indicated the two models will represent relatively iterative upgrades rather than a dramatic redesign, and that Apple will hold off on announcing a standard iPhone 18 model until next year, according to MacRumors.

The company is also expected to introduce the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra, along with new smart home devices. Additional reporting has pointed to further hardware refreshes across Apple’s ecosystem, potentially including updated AirPods, as the company works to round out its fall product lineup.

On the software side, Apple may use the event to announce release dates for iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate, giving developers and consumers a clearer timeline for its next generation of operating systems. Some reporting has also pointed to the possibility that Apple could introduce an upgraded, AI-powered version of Siri at the event, built using modern large language model technology to let the assistant interact more directly with apps such as messaging and calendars, according to CNBC.

Why this event matters more than usual

Apple typically holds a major hardware event every September to launch its newest iPhones, and this year’s gathering was expected regardless of any leadership changes. But the confluence of Ternus’s ascension to CEO and the debut of the company’s most significant hardware redesign in years has raised the stakes considerably for what is usually a predictable annual tradition.

CNN described Apple’s September event as widely considered the company’s most important moment of the year, a characterization that carries additional significance given that it will double as Ternus’s public introduction as chief executive to investors, customers and the broader tech industry.

The foldable iPhone in particular is seen by analysts as a critical driver for Apple’s business going forward. Premium, higher-priced devices like a foldable model are widely expected to support higher average selling prices and improved profit margins for the company, at a time when the broader smartphone industry is grappling with supply constraints tied to a shortage of memory and storage chips that has pushed up costs and dampened consumer demand.

Apple’s announcement ends months of speculation about the timing of its fall hardware event, though the company’s invitation, as is typical, offered no explicit confirmation of what will be unveiled on stage. The event will be streamed on YouTube, Apple’s own events page, and the Apple TV app, among other platforms, giving global audiences the chance to watch as Ternus steps into the spotlight for the first time as Apple’s chief executive.

With the foldable iPhone, a new CEO and a wave of other hardware and software announcements all converging on a single September morning in Cupertino, Apple watchers say the Sept. 9 event could prove to be one of the most consequential product launches in the company’s recent history — a test of whether its next era of leadership can deliver the kind of surprise its own invitation promises.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Scientists say a collapsed glacier near the Himalayan peak of Langtang Lirung, not an earthquake, was the likely trigger behind the devastating flash flood that struck the Nepal-Tibet border this week, killing at least 177 people and highlighting the dangers of rapidly melting ice across the world’s highest mountain range.

Preliminary reports in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s disaster suggested a tremor may have caused a landslide that in turn triggered the flooding. But the U.S. Geological Survey has since clarified that the event was instead caused by a “glacial collapse,” a process in which a glacier or a portion of one disintegrates suddenly. The impact of the falling ice hitting the valley floor below was powerful enough to register as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event, according to USGS data and outside scientists who have since analyzed the disaster.

Pinpointing the source

Dr. Simon Cook, a glacier expert at the University of Dundee, told the BBC that his team had identified the lower portion of a glacier near the Langtang Lirung peak — located roughly 15 kilometers, or about 9 miles, west of the flood site — as the likely source of the collapse. Cook said his analysis indicates the glacier broke away and moved initially in a northwesterly direction before traveling westward downstream toward the communities and infrastructure that were ultimately destroyed.

A separate analysis by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, an intergovernmental scientific institution known as ICIMOD, concluded that the disaster likely began with an ice-rock avalanche originating from a high-altitude area. That avalanche sent a large volume of ice and rock debris into the Lende Khola, a tributary of the Bhote Koshi river, generating a sudden surge of water, sediment and large boulders that swept downstream with tremendous force.

According to ICIMOD’s findings, water levels in rivers downstream rose between seven and nine meters within just 30 minutes of the collapse, a surge so powerful that it washed away or damaged several river monitoring stations positioned to track exactly this kind of hazard. The steep, narrow topography of the valley funneled the resulting torrent of water and debris at high speed through populated areas along the riverbanks.

A pattern scientists have long warned about

While it remains unclear precisely what caused the glacier to collapse on Wednesday, researchers have spent years warning that rising temperatures and broader climate change are accelerating the melting of ice and permafrost throughout the Himalayas, raising the risk of exactly this type of catastrophic event.

An ICIMOD analysis released earlier this year found that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region are now losing ice at double the rate recorded since 2000, a trend that directly increases the danger of flooding and related hazards across the region.

This week’s disaster is not an isolated case. Cook pointed to similar incidents involving floods and landslides triggered by glacier collapses in recent years in India, Switzerland and Italy. In 2021, a large section of a Himalayan glacier collapsed in the Chamoli valley in northern India, unleashing a cascade of debris and water downstream that killed 200 people; scientists later estimated the force of that collapse was roughly equivalent to 15 atomic bombs. Even within Nepal, the same general region experienced flooding last year after a glacial lake in Tibet burst its banks.

“The pace of change is so rapid”

Mohd Farooq Azam, a cryosphere specialist with ICIMOD, said the growing frequency of hazards tied to the world’s frozen regions has become impossible to ignore. “The pace of change is so rapid that current efforts are struggling to keep up,” Azam said.

Cook was careful to note the scientific difficulty of attributing any single disaster directly to climate change, but said the broader pattern points clearly in that direction. “When you look at the pattern of these events, you do think climate change could have an impact,” he said.

He explained the underlying mechanism driving the trend: as the planet warms, glaciers shrink and generate more meltwater, while permafrost — the centuries-old frozen soil that helps hold many mountainsides together — is thawing and degrading. “So you are going to get more landslides, debris flows, glacial meltwater, lake outbursts, glacier collapses, because climate warming ultimately destabilizes these high mountain environments,” Cook said.

Visible evidence from above

Satellite imagery comparing the Trishuli river before and after the disaster illustrates the scale of the transformation. Images taken Aug. 23, just three days before the flood, show a comparatively clear river channel. By Aug. 26, the same stretch of river appears choked with brown sediment spilling out well beyond its normal banks, visual confirmation of the massive volume of debris and water that surged through the valley.

A disaster still unfolding

The human toll from the flood continues to climb as search operations proceed. More than 800 people remain missing across Nepal, according to authorities, with rescue teams working under difficult conditions in the steep, debris-choked terrain to reach survivors and recover victims. Video and helicopter footage from the disaster zone show the scale of destruction wrought by the flash flood as it tore through the Rasuwa district.

A warning for the future

For scientists tracking the health of the Himalayan cryosphere, this week’s disaster serves as the latest and most severe example of a danger they have been documenting for years. With glacier loss accelerating and permafrost destabilizing across the range, researchers say events like the one that struck the Nepal-Tibet border this week are likely to become more frequent rather than less, adding urgency to calls for better monitoring systems, early warning infrastructure and international cooperation to protect vulnerable communities living downstream from the world’s highest and most rapidly changing mountains.