Smartphone shipments saw their biggest ever drop in February as the novel coronavirus ravaged China, one of the world's largest markets and a vital manufacturing hub.
Worldwide, phone shipments fell 38% to 61.8 million units in February 2020, from 99.2 million units in the same month last year, according to Strategy Analytics. The firm attributed the "huge" drop to a collapse in demand in Asia.
"February 2020 saw the biggest fall ever in the history of the worldwide smartphone market," Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston said. "Supply and demand of smartphones plunged in China, slumped across Asia and slowed in the rest of the world. It is a period the smartphone industry will want to forget."
The news follows warnings by companies like Apple that they likely won't meet their expected sales targets because of the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Apple in February cited two reasons for its update: The coronavirus was hurting both demand from Chinese customers and production capabilities inside the country. China is one of the world's biggest markets and the primary location where devices like the iPhone are assembled. Because factories are coming online later, there'll be iPhone shortages around the globe, Apple has said.
The coronavirus is changing the way we live and forcing people across the globe to stay at home and isolate themselves from others. The pandemic has caused schools to close, while other closures have swept across the US, from Broadway theaters to NBA venues. Starting Tuesday, the San Francisco Bay Area was put on lockdown, with citizens ordered to stay at home except for essential outings. It followed places like France and Spain in limiting the movement of the public, and the rest of California joined the lockdown on Thursday. The state of New York followed suit Friday.
www.cnet.com
