Global smartphone shipments dropped 38% in February 2020

Global smartphone shipments dropped 38% YOY during February 2020 from 99.2 million devices to 61.8 million, the biggest fall ever in the history of the smartphone market, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “February 2020 saw the biggest fall ever in the history of the worldwide smartphone market. Supply and demand of smartphones plunged in China, slumped across Asia, and slowed in the rest of the world. It is a period the smartphone industry will want to forget.”

Every smartphone company dropped in February 2020. Specifically, Samsung dropped 13% and 17% in global shipments and sales, respectively, and remained number one with 18.2 million units, it sold over 20 million in January.

Apple, the world’s top smartphone vendor by volume in the Q4 2019, has closed its stores outside of China indefinitely and warned in February that the coronavirus outbreak would temporarily constrain iPhone supply. Apple shipments and sales ranked second in February 2020 but were also severely affected. Shipments and sales were down 27% and 39% year-on-year respectively.

Apple has shipped only 10.1 million smartphone units in February 2020. Apple in February said that its March quarter revenue will not meet its revenue goals.

Xiaomi surpassed Huawei in February in terms of shipments and sales, jumping to third place. This is mainly because online sales are less affected than offline physical stores. Xiaomi’s February shipments and sales decreased by 32% and 29% year-on-year respectively; The company shipped 6 million units in February 2020, down from 10 million in January.

Huawei fell to fourth place in terms of shipments and sales. Huawei ’s February shipments and sales fell by 69% and 60% year-on-year, respectively. At the same time, the backlog of 4G inventory in the channel also affected sales in February; Huawei saw the biggest fall from 12.2 million to 5.5 million.

OPPO’s February shipments and sales both ranked fifth, down 49% and 52% year-on-year respectively; Vivo’s shipments and sales both ranked sixth, down 54% and 50% year-on-year, respectively. Oppo only shipped 4.4 million and Vivo shipped just 3.6 million units. In addition, Lenovo-Motorola, Transsion, LG, and Realme also entered the top ten.

The statistic also foreshadows forthcoming trouble in the smartphone market as other regions have now shut down their economies to slow the virus.

Yiwen Wu, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added, “Despite tentative signs of recovery in China, we expect global smartphone shipments overall to remain weak throughout March, 2020. The coronavirus scare has spread to Europe, North America and elsewhere, and hundreds of millions of affluent consumers are in lockdown, unable or unwilling to shop for new devices. The smartphone industry will have to work harder than ever to lift sales in the coming weeks, such as online flash sales or generous discounts on bundling with hot products like smartwatches.”