According to a report from market research firm Canalys, the global smartphone shipments will be slightly lower than the total smartphone shipments last year. The firm has slashed its forecast by around 5 percent amid the US-China trade war.
This comes after the United States decided to ban Huawei from doing business with US-based company and technology. The firm is now projecting smartphone shipments of 1.35 billion units in 2019, a year-over-year decline of 3.1 percent from 1.3931 billion units that were shipped in 2018.
Earlier, the company had forecasted shipments of 1.417 billion units in 2019, or what would have been a projected 1.7 percent increase. That 2019 forecast has now been lowered by 4.7 percent.
While the order issued by U.S. authorities is still officially on hold for about 90 days, Canalys does expect it to go into effect and the order will strike a massive blow to Huawei’s ability to roll out new devices.
However, looking at the future, Canalys predicts positive smartphone growth in 2020 with an expected bounce back to 1.39 billion global shipments, equating to a 3.4 percent increase. It also adds that certain regions will recover faster than others, mainly due to varying lengths of the phones’ lifecycles.
Huawei had enjoyed massive growth in recent years when it comes to the consumer electronics business. While Apple iPhones shipments fell 23 percent in Q1 2019, Huawei’s shipments surged over 50 percent year-over-year. The company was even determined to overtake Samsung in 2020 to become the world’s top smartphone seller.
However, the Chinese giant is now scrambling to implement contingency plans. It seems that Samsung could benefit from Huawei’s troubles as the South Korean company has the ability to boost production and compete on price.
(Source)
