The coronavirus pandemic across the globe has left many governments and markets disturbed. It has been reported that the global smartphone shipments plummeted by 38 percent, which has marked the biggest decline in the mobile phones shipments in history. The figure is not surprising as it is the virus that has affected the market on a large scale. In February 2019, the smartphone shipment figure was 99.2 million units and the February 2020 figure was just 61.8 million units. The demand of smartphones went down in Asia first due to the coronavirus outbreak that started off in China. This was the major reason, the shipments across the world went down.
There were many Asian factories that were not able to manufacture smartphones as the factories were shut down. Moreover, many consumers were not willing to visit the retail stores and were not able to buy new devices. As for the currently situation, it cannot be said as to when the smartphone market will be back to normal. There are reports that the smartphone manufacturing factories in China are slowly resuming work back to normal but for a consumer, purchasing a new device would be the last thing on their minds for now.
A large number of population is under quarantine at home and many of them are unable to work or earn a living. For now the preference is the basic essentials that people are trying to make for their respective families and buying a smartphone would certainly not on the list for quite some time.
On the other hand, even if a person is interested in buying a new smartphone then they are also facing a challenge. For instance if a person wants to buy a new iPhone, not a single Apple retail store outside China is open and the closure is indefinite. Telecom giant AT&T has also announced that it was closing 40 percent of its stores as a measure to combat coronavirus.
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