Government data showed Monday the extent of the decline in phone sales in China because of Corona, as Apple sold less than half a million iPhones in China last February, as the outbreak of the Corona virus reduced the demand for smartphones by half.

China imposed travel restrictions and asked residents to avoid public places in late January, ahead of the Lunar New Year’s Day, a major holiday in the country in which gifts were given. These restrictions remained largely in force during most of February.

In total, mobile phone brands sold a total of 6.34 million devices during the month of February in China, down 54.7% from 14 million in the same month last year, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology. Moreover, this number is the lowest in 2012, when the Academy began publishing market data.

Apple shares fell about 6% amid a broader fall on Wall Street amid growing fears of a recession due to the sharp drop in oil prices and the rapidly spreading virus.

The data showed that the brands of Android phones, which include devices manufactured by Huawei and Xiaomi, suffered the largest decrease, as they collectively witnessed a decrease in shipments from 12.72 million units in February 2019 to 5.85 million units. As for the shipments of Apple devices, they declined to 494 thousand units from 1.27 million units. In January, the shipments maintained a steady rate of two million units.

It is noteworthy that the two market analysts IDC and Canalys had previously expected that smartphone shipments will decrease by nearly 40% in the first quarter.

Source : Report