Research firm DigiTimes has published a report that projects a massive 15% decrease in smartphone sales, bringing the numbers down to 1.15 billion units.
Brands that have a larger presence in the United States and Europe, where lockdown was implemented and are most likely to experience recession this year, will bear the maximum brunt.
Smartphone sales in India, one of the only few markets with positive sales numbers, has taken a nosedive due to the coronavirus-led lockdown. The Indian government initially decided to put smartphones under essential commodities category, however, the decision was withdrawn immediately adding to the woes of the e-commerce majors like Flipkart and Amazon.
The report reveals that the premium segment of smartphones is expected to face the maximum impact. And since smartphones aren’t on the priority list for most, people have started to curtail unnecessary expenses and prefer living on tighter budgets due to the uncertainty that lies ahead.
The direct impact of changed shopping behaviour was seen when OnePlus which is now positioning itself as a premium smartphone brand, recently laid off some of its workers in Europe.
DigiTimes further reports that for the second and third quarters, Tech giant Apple may have already lowered orders for the iPhone 11, currently the best-selling iPhone device globally. However, the newly released iPhone SE, may help soften the near-term impact.
Samsung has also suffered due to the Covid-19 situation and the poor sales of Galaxy S20 series has further hit the company’s revenue, as per the report.
