What is the best smartphone to buy right now in the US?
Answers vary from one ask to the next, and the apps can search the web and remember the person asking. That is why we ask each question 90 times without web search and 36 times with it.
Google sells 3% of America's phones. AI gives it at least 14% of its first picks.
Motorola sells 11% and gets 3 to 4%. Apple sells 54% and comes first in 31% of answers without web search and 27% with it, when Samsung edges ahead at 30%.
United States
Smartphones
Google sells 3% of America's phones. AI gives it at least 14% of its first picks.
Measured without web search. The search run comes in the next edition.
The brands AI names first most often, plus any this finding is about.
Named firstNamed at all
| Brand | Named first | Named at all |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 61% | |
| Samsung | 74% | |
| Google Pixel | 52% | |
| Lively | 6% | |
| Motorola | 24% | |
| Ulefone | 7% | |
| Gabb | 5% | |
| Light Phone | 6% | |
| Sonim | 5% | |
| Nokia | 5% | |
| Pinwheel | 4% | |
| 16% | ||
| Kyocera | 4% | |
| Bark | 3% | |
| TCL | 4% | |
| Nothing | 3% | |
| Blackview | 1% | |
| Unihertz | 1% | |
| ASUS | <1% | |
| Troomi | <1% | |
| Sony Xperia | <1% | |
| Orbic | <1% | |
| None of the tracked brands |
720 answers across ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude together, October 2026. These are AI answers, not market shares. The three assistants share a favorite on 5 of 8 questions.
By assistant, and on your own buyers' questions: that is a Position Map. See a Position Map
With web search · All eight questions
| Brand | Named first | Named at all |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung | 74% | |
| Apple | 56% | |
| Google Pixel | 48% | |
| Gabb | 9% | |
| Lively | 7% | |
| Motorola | 23% | |
| Ulefone | 9% | |
| Light Phone | 5% | |
| Pinwheel | 6% | |
| Blackview | 3% | |
| Sonim | 6% | |
| TCL | 5% | |
| 7% | ||
| Nokia | 5% | |
| Nothing | 5% | |
| Unihertz | 2% | |
| Bark | 6% | |
| Troomi | 3% | |
| Kyocera | 3% | |
| ASUS | <1% | |
| Sony Xperia | <1% |
286 answers across ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude together, October 2026. These are AI answers, not market shares. The three assistants share a favorite on 5 of 8 questions.
Who sells, and who AI names first.
By market size
By AI's first picks
- 1Apple54%
- 2Samsung30%
- 3Motorola11%
- 4Google3%
- 1Apple31%
- 2Samsung23%
- 3Google Pixel17%
- =5Motorola3%
Places count every brand AI names, so the numbers can jump. "=" is a tie. "–" means AI never names it first.
US smartphone shipments, second quarter of 2026: Apple 54%, Samsung 30%, Motorola 11%, Google 3%.
Counterpoint Research. One quarter is noisy: Google ranged from 2% to 7% over the last six quarters.
What it means.
In this market sales and AI's answers barely follow each other. A phone AI rates for one need can sit far above its sales, and a big seller with no such need stays in the background: Motorola sells almost four times as many phones as Google and leads none of the eight questions. OnePlus stopped launching new phones in North America in July, and AI still names it in 16% of answers without web search and 7% with it.
The eight questions.
Best cheap smartphone under $300?
Without web search
Google PixelAll three agree.
With web search
SamsungThe assistants differ.
Which smartphone brand lasts the longest and has the fewest problems?
Best camera phone right now?
Best first phone for a kid?
Best foldable phone?
Best rugged phone for construction work?
Best simple phone for an elderly parent?
Is your company missing or measured under the wrong name? Tell us. We correct facts at any time. Results change only in the next edition, for everyone.
Edition 1, Q4 2026. Next edition: January 2027.
Eight buying questions per market, each asked in six wordings of ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude: five times without web search (720 answers per market, 14,400 in all) and twice with it (288 per market, 4,600 in all, in sixteen of the twenty markets so far). Measured 25 to 30 October 2026. Kesterley.
Your own questions, not ours. Position Map: where you stand on the questions your buyers ask, why AI puts a rival first, and what to do first. From $2,500. Two weeks.
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