Apple shipped 16.8 million true wireless earbuds in the second quarter of 2026, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier, while the market as a whole shrank, according to research firm Omdia. That gave Apple a 20.5 percent share of the 82.1 million units shipped worldwide, almost double second-place Xiaomi.
Omdia says the 0.7 percent market decline is the first year-over-year drop since the second quarter of 2023. The figures cover April to June, so they come before AirPods 5 reached Apple Stores on September 18. They show the position Apple’s new earbuds start from: a market leader still growing slightly in a flat market.
Apple grew while its biggest rivals slipped
Of the top five brands, only Apple and OPPO shipped more than a year ago. Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei all fell, with Huawei down more than 10 percent.
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| Vendor | Q2 2026 shipments | Share | Q2 2025 shipments | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | 16.8 million | 20.5% | 16.6 million | +1.2% |
| Xiaomi | 8.6 million | 10.4% | 8.8 million | -3.1% |
| Samsung | 5.5 million | 6.7% | 5.7 million | -2.9% |
| Huawei | 5.1 million | 6.2% | 5.7 million | -10.6% |
| OPPO | 4.1 million | 5.0% | 3.6 million | +14.9% |
| Everyone else | 42.0 million | 51.2% | 42.3 million | -0.7% |
| Total | 82.1 million | 100% | 82.7 million | -0.7% |
These are sell-in figures, meaning units shipped into stores and carriers, not units bought by customers. Omdia doesn’t break Apple’s total down by AirPods model.
Omdia blames most of the decline on mainland China, the largest earbud market, where shipments fell 9.5 percent as the boost from broader consumer electronics stimulus faded and some upgrades were pulled forward into 2025. Shipments also fell in the US and India, while emerging markets grew.
Where “open-ear” fits, and where AirPods 5 fit
The growth in Omdia’s report is in what it calls open wireless stereo, or OWS. Those shipments rose 12 percent to 11.1 million, lifting OWS to 13.5 percent of the market from 12 percent. Conventional earbuds, which Omdia defines as in-ear and semi-in-ear products, fell about 2 percent. Clip-on designs made up most OWS shipments, and the category leader was Shokz, whose shipments roughly doubled to 1.1 million.
That can look like a tailwind for AirPods 5, which Apple markets with an “open-ear design.” Read Omdia’s definitions closely, though. Its OWS shipments are made up of clip-on and ear-hook products, 61 and 39 percent respectively, and it counts semi-in-ear products as conventional earbuds. AirPods 5 sit in the ear without sealing it, which puts them closer to Omdia’s semi-in-ear, conventional side of the split. Apple is not among the OWS leaders Omdia names.
By Omdia’s definitions, then, Apple’s 1.2 percent growth most likely came from the conventional side of the market, which shrank overall, rather than from the clip-on boom. If you are choosing between those styles, our guide to open-ear, sealed and over-ear AirPods covers who each shape suits.
What Omdia expects next
Omdia expects OWS to keep expanding, from 43.9 million units in 2026 to 90.5 million by 2030, which would be nearly one in five earbuds shipped. Its analysts also see AI features as the next battleground in premium audio.
“AI-driven features are becoming an important area of differentiation in premium audio,” said Jason Low, research director at Omdia, pointing to earbuds with built-in neural processing units and companion apps powered by large language models. He added that users “will continue to prioritize comfort, audio quality, call quality, and active noise cancellation (ANC) performance.”
That list lines up with what Apple chose to lead with for AirPods 5. Apple’s product page highlights up to 1.5 times more Active Noise Cancellation than the previous generation, a redesigned acoustic architecture, Live Translation and the H2 chip. Omdia’s third-quarter figures, which will cover the AirPods 5 launch, should show whether that pitch moves Apple’s share.
