Due to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, the global smartphone market has seen a decline of 20.2 percent in terms of total sales. While all of the major brands saw a decline globally, the Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi, was the only vendor that witnessed growth during the first quarter of 2020.
According to a new report by Gartner, a known analytics firm, the global smartphone sales declined by 20.2 percent in Q1 2020. The primary reason was the COVID-19 outbreak with “most of the leading Chinese manufacturers and Apple were severely impacted by the temporary closures of their factories in China and reduced consumer spending due to the global shelter-in-place.”
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In the list of the top 5 smartphone brands in the world, Xiaomi is the only vendor that managed to avoid the noticeable decline. The Chinese company witnessed a growth of 1.4 percent year on year from 2019, during the first quarter of 2020. On the other hand, OEMs like Samsung saw a sizeable decline of 22.7 percent and Huawei sales shrank by 27.3 percent. Apple faired relatively better with just an 8.2 percent fall in sales, although, Oppo also suffered by a decline of 24.2 percent during Q1.
Despite the Coronavirus being a primary reason for the overall market being affected, various brands dealt with the issue differently, Huawei was focused towards its local market of China while improving upon its HMS services overseas, while Xiaomi focused heavily on the global market. Samsung and Apple had their operations heavily obstructed by the many lockdowns and disruption in their supply chains, but have ramped up production since. The first quarter does share a bleak view of the current market, but this is set to improve later on in the year.
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