Apple finished 2025 as the world’s top smartphone brand, extending its lead over Samsung as global phone shipments grew overall.

At last week's CES 2026, Samsung briefly showcased a creaseless foldable OLED panel beside the Galaxy Z Fold 7 – a screen that, according to SamMobile who saw it before it disappeared, had "no crease at all" compared to Samsung's current hardware.

Samsung has stopped pretending this is a polite rivalry. From hardware design to AI strategy to full-page newspaper jabs, the company is openly positioning itself as the alternative to Apple, and it is doing it with a mix of imitation,

Despite being late to the foldable smartphone market, Apple is not at a strategic disadvantage, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noting its software advantage and strong market potential, while Samsung highlights growing foldable adoption and traders bet on a premium iPhone launch before 2027.

India is weighing new cybersecurity rules that would require smartphone makers to grant the government access to source code and make software changes, prompting quiet resistance from major technology companies including Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (SSNLF),

Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring this week confirmed the first foldable iPhone, “Remains on track for a Fall 2026 launch, with supply chain forecasts targeting 15-20m units for the first full-year cycle, or 7-8m units of C2H26 production, subject to future change,” according to a client note seen by Computerworld.

Apple reportedly has plans to adopt Samsung’s 200MP camera tech for the 2028 iPhone lineups. Alphabet notched a market capitalization of roughly $4 trillion on Thursday. investors braced for another labor data update and grappled with President Trump's salvos on defense and Venezuela.

Wearable makers like Apple, Samsung, Garmin, Google have long chased what might be the holy grail of health tech: non-invasive glucose monitoring.