Smartphone sales tank in China as coronavirus dampens demand: govt data

SHANGHAI: Sales of smartphones in China tumbled by more than a third in January, government data showed on Monday, in a sign of how the coronavirus outbreak is hurting consumer demand.

China started putting curbs on travel and asking residents to avoid public places in late January, just ahead of the Lunar New Year festival, a major gift-giving holiday.

Mobile phone brands shipped a total of 20.4 million devices that month, down 36.6% from 32.1 millon in January 2019, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed.

China’s smartphone market has been shrinking for a number of years as demand became more reliant on consumers replacing existing handsets than buying new ones. However, January’s drop was far larger than was seen in the same month last year, when sales fell 11.4%.