The coronavirus has had a devastating impact on the regularly thriving smartphone industry in China, but there’s cause for hope … it’s starting to show signs of life again.
Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the sale of smartphones, which reportedly resulted in Apple having one of its worst months ever in China in February … with only half a million iPhones sold to its 1.4 BILLION people.
That low amount’s due to 3 factors — reduced supply because of factory shutdowns, retail stores being closed, and of course … loss of expendable income for Chinese citizens.
A survey of 1,300 smartphone owners found that 37 percent were holding off on purchasing a new one, and 32 percent were delaying an upgrade to 5G … something that was widely anticipated in 2020.
Compare this to 40 percent responding that they’ve delated buying cars, furniture and appliances, as well … it’s fair to say smartphones are lumped into the big-ticket item category low on people’s purchase priority list.
On the plus side, sales bounced back slightly in March … which total mobile phone shipments from all companies increasing by 3 times over February. Apple shipped nearly 5 times more units … but smartphone sales overall were still down 20 percent in March compared to 2020.
Clearly could be worse, though, and with China being the first country to go on lockdown … it’s hopeful it can be the first to bounce back.