The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected smartphone markets around the world including the US. The latest report on the country by Counterpoint Research shows the sell-through volumes to have fallen 25% in Q2 2020. Samsung remained the least affected while Chinese OEMs like ZTE, OnePlus and Lenovo-owned Motorola were hit the most.
Unlike other regions, the US is primarily an offline and postpaid smartphone market. Since most brick and mortar stores were closed as part of lockdowns to curb the spread of coronavirus from mid-March, April was the weakest month for smartphone sell-through.
However, the market began to recover from May till June in such a fashion that the sales were stronger than that of June 2019. This occurred due to the opening of carrier and retail stores supported by pent-up demand.
Talking about OEMs, the sell-through declined for all the major players, however, Samsung remained the strongest with only 10% drop followed by Alcatel at 11%. Whereas, sales of Apple and LG decreased by 23% and 35% respectively.
On the other hand, ZTE was the most affected company with 68% dip. Similar story for Lenovo-owned Motorola (62%) and OnePlus (60%), both of which launched their most expensive flagship smartphones in the second quarter of 2020.
Further, Samsung Galaxy S20 series activations were 38% less than that of Galaxy S10 series in the first four months. But Apple iPhone SE 2020 sold well as over 30% of buyers upgraded from either iPhone 6s or older models. Interestingly, 26% of new users were one who switched from Android, which happens to be higher than normal Android to iOS switching.
Though the US smartphone market is slowly recovering, we will have to wait and see how it responds when Samsung and Apple launch their new products starting next month.
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