Coronavirus wreaks havoc on global smartphone market; Q1 shipments down 13%: Canalys

NEW DELHI: The worldwide smartphone shipments plunged 13% to 272 million units in the January-March quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic, Canalys said on Friday.

The smartphone market entered 2020 in good health, having just recorded two consecutive quarters of growth. “But demand for new devices has been crushed,” said Canalys Senior Analyst Ben Stanton.

“In February, when the coronavirus was centered on China, vendors were mainly concerned about how to build enough smartphones to meet global demand. But in March, the situation flipped on its head. Smartphone manufacturing has now recovered, but as half the world entered lockdown, sales plummeted,” he added.