Nuked The coronavirus pandemic has caused the smartphone market to suffer its fastest year-on-year decline. Counterpoint research and Canalys both put the overall drop in global shipments at 13 percent. The drop in China alone was 27 percent while Canalys calculates it at 18 percent.
It’s the first time shipments have come under 300 million since 2014. A precipitous collapse in China followed falling demand around the world.
Samsung, Huawei, and Apple are still the top three vendors. Both Canalys and counterpoint rank Xiaomi fourth, cracking 10 percent of global market share for the first time.
In February, vendors were concerned about how to build enough smartphones to meet global demand. But in March, the situation flipped on its head.
Smartphones are mostly a discretionary purchase, says counterpoint associate director Tarun Pathak. Consumers, under these uncertain times, are likely to withhold making many significant discretionary purchases.
