We knew the covid 19 pandemic affected smartphone companies but this new data from Counterpoint Research just showed the possible extent. While lots if launch events were cancelled and others held online, smartphone companies also experienced a decline in shipment of phones by some 13% YoY in the first quarter of 2020.
According to recent reports from Counterpoint, nearly all major smartphone brands saw significant drop in shipment volume during the first quarter of 2020 due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
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Between January and March, Shipment of Smartphones globally dropped below 300 million units. This incident last happened in the Q1 of 2014. Aside from lower consumer demand, the disruption in China due to COVID-19 also had an impact on the supply side for some Android OEMs, affecting their global shipments.
Even top phone brands also suffered from this sharp decline. The shipment of Samsung declined by some 18% compared to Q1 2019, although it still managed to capture one-fifth of the global smartphone market.
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Huawei also experienced a 17% YoY decline in shipment, but was still the second largest smartphone vendor globally during the first quarter of 2020. The third largest smartphone vendor of Q1 2020 Apple also saw iPhone shipments decline by some 5%.
Xiaomi, Realme and Vivo phones managed to see some increase in it’s shipment though. It seems the late lockdown implemented by India played a major role as India is the main market for these phones.
Recent predictions are pointing to further decline in shipment of phones during the second quarter of 2020. According to TrendForce, the decline might move further down as low as 16.5%.
