Chinese smartphone shipment projections down 5 per cent this year due to coronavirus outbreak
- Leading Chinese smartphone vendors such as Huawei Technologies, OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi are expected to suffer badly at home in the first half of 2020
- Global smartphone shipment projections have also been revised down by 2 per cent
Amid the ongoing outbreak of a new coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, Chinese major smartphone vendors are now expected to ship 5 per cent fewer smartphones this year than previously projected.
“The outbreak of novel coronavirus in Wuhan will hit the China and global economy during the first half of 2020,” said Linda Sui, director of Strategy Analytics in a report by the research firm. “The smartphone market will be adversely impacted by the slowing economic growth and the plunging consumer spending.”
Leading vendors such as Huawei Technologies, OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi are expected to suffer badly at home in the first half of 2020, Sui added.
The report also predicted that the outbreak will impact global smartphone supply and manufacturing, because China makes 70 per cent of all smartphones sold.
“Any delay of operations for factories, by quarantine or travel restriction, will inevitably cause [a] temporary labour-supply shortage,” said Sui. “The biggest impact will hit China, but other connected economies will feel a ripple, like Japan or the US”.
Strategy Analytics forecast that the global market will ship 2 per cent fewer smartphones than expected in 2020, due to “the fear and ‘paralysis’ caused by [the] coronavirus”.
