Global smartphone sales declined 20% in Q1 2020: Gartner

London: As demand collapsed amid Covid-19, global sales of smartphones to end users declined 20.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, Gartner said on Monday.

The demands declined as consumers stopped spending on nonessential products during the first quarter due to uncertainties brought on by the pandemic.

All of the top five smartphone vendors recorded a decline in the first quarter of 2020, except for Xiaomi which managed a surprise growth of 1.4 per cent.

Strong sales of Redmi devices in international markets and aggressive online channel focus led Xiaomi to achieve better than expected sales, said the report titled “Market Share: PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones, All Countries, 1Q20 Update.”

“The coronavirus pandemic caused the global smartphone market to experience its worst decline ever,” Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement.