Coronavirus (COVID-19) impact on global smartphone shipments 2020

The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the way smartphone manufacturers and vendors have been able to conduct their business, with shutdowns and disruptions all along the supply chain. On the user side, challenging economic conditions and employment insecurity has also led to consumers deferring their purchase of expensive items such as smartphones. While over 1.4 billion units had been expected to be shipped in 2020 before the pandemic, the corresponding number from the revised forecast is now roughly 1.3 billion devices.

First signs of COVID-19 impact

    The figures analysts released covering the second quarter of 2020 were among the first to give some insight as to the scale of the disruption within the smartphone industry. Early indications are that Samsung are the hardest hit so far, with shipments dropping to their lowest level since the second quarter of 2012. Samsung shipped 54.2 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2020, the third consecutive quarter in which shipments fell.

Huawei, on the other hand, seem to have displayed more resilience to the pandemic than other major smartphone vendors, increasing their shipment volume from 49 million smartphones in Q1 2020, to 55.8 million smartphones in Q2 2020. That was enough to give Huawei a 20 percent share of the market, more than any other vendor. This marked the first time Huawei managed to ship more units than their competitors.