Data released by the Chinese government shows that US smartphone maker Apple sold less than 500,000 iPhones in China last month. The slump in shipment equally affected other smartphone manufacturers and is attributed to the Coronavirus outbreak in the country. China placed restrictions on travels and also banned residents from congregating in public places jut before the Lunar New Year Festival. The restrictions were not lifted even after the extended holidays in most of the days in February as the epidemic rages on.

Altogether, smartphone brands sold 6.34 million phones in February in China, down 54.7% from 14 million around the same time a year ago, information from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) shows. This figure is also noted to be the lowest monthly sales level since 2012 when CAICT began releasing regular sales data.

Shipments of Apple products dropped to 494,000, from 1.27 million in February 2019. In January, its shipments had held consistent at a little more than 2 million.

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This abysmal performance is in line with the projections of research firms IDC and Canalys which predicted that the overall phone shipments would drop by about 40% in the first quarter due to the Coronavirus outbreak that has led to a disruption in distribution channels.

Apple’s product stores in China were closed for over two weeks in February as fears over the pandemic mounted. The organization’s CEO, Tim Cook, composed a letter to financial specialists that month cautioning it would not meet its underlying income direction for the present quarter because of feeble interest. Analysts believe the demand in the first quarter is a shock event that won’t last for long. However, with falling oil prices and escalation o the epidemic, the near future looks bleak.

Android brands, which include devices made by Huawei and Xiaomi accounted for most of the drop, as they collectively saw shipments decline from 12.72 million units in February 2019 to 5.85 million, the data showed.

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(source)

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