Global smartphone shipments projected to fall by 12% this year amid the coronavirus pandemic

The International Data Corporation (IDC) announced on Wednesday that worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to fall by 12% to 1.2 billion units this year because of low consumer spending due to economic crisis amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“What started as a supply-side crisis has evolved into a global demand-side problem. Nationwide lockdowns and rising unemployment have reduced consumer confidence and reprioritized spending towards essential goods, directly impacting the uptake of smartphones in the short term,” IDC’s Researcher for Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers Sangeetika Srivastava said in a statement.

Apple Inc (AAPL), Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX), and most Chinese phone manufacturers were severely impacted by temporary shutdowns of smartphone factories in the United States, China, and Europe.

Apple saw an 8% decline in sales, dropping from the 44.5-Million sales in smartphones in the first quarter of 2019 to nearly 40.1 Million in the first quarter of 2020. The American technology company introduced iPhone SE 2020 and announced huge discounts on iPhone 11 in China to weather a plunge in global smartphone demand.