Although the spread of the new coronavirus has weakened over the past few days, this does not mean that the virus has been defeated. Who knows what would have happened if it had started spreading not from China, but from India, where they probably would not have taken special means of protection against the virus. In this case, many more people became infected and died from the new virus. Currently, more than 40 thousand people are infected, and more than 900 have become victims of the new virus. Today many factories in China are closed, electronics stores are closed. For example, not so long ago the company Apple closed all its stores, and Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, ZTE and Lenovo have stopped supplying smartphones to Russia. And this situation cannot but worry everyone who is somehow interested in the smartphone market.
Coronavirus will seriously affect smartphone sales
According to the latest data from colleagues from Reuters, smartphone shipments in China in Q1 2020 will decline by 50%:
Smartphone sales in China could decline by 50% in the first quarter as many consumer electronics stores are closed indefinitely today and some factories have yet to resume operations due to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus.
Canalyst expects smartphone shipments in China to halve in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2018. Meanwhile, IDC expects a 30% drop in shipments. Many companies are now postponing the release of new devices and refusing to attend various conferences.
21 companies refused to participate in MWC
Earlier, manufacturers began to refuse to release new products, and the situation is gaining momentum. MWC is a consumer electronics trade show that brings together companies from around the world to showcase their new products. A considerable proportion of the exhibitors and visitors of the exhibition were precisely the Chinese, so some companies do not dare to attend such exhibitions today. Currently, the list of companies that have refused to participate in the MWC is as follows:
- Accedian
- Amazon
- Amdocs
- Ciena
- CommScope
- Dali wireless
- Ericsson
- F5 Networks
- iconectiv
- Intel
- InterDigital
- LG
- MediaTek
- NTT Docomo
- Nvidia
- Rakuten
- Sony
- Ulefone
- Umidigi
- Viber
- Vivo
- TCL
You can see that the list is quite impressive. In particular, it is worth noting the refusal of major players such as Sony, Nvidia, Vivo, LG and Intel. It is not clear who would even wish to attend the exhibition after that. The GSM Association, which is the organizer of the exhibition, announced that it does not plan to abandon its holding yet and will take all measures to ensure the safety of exhibitors and spectators.
It is already clear that the new coronavirus will have a serious impact on the entire Chinese economy and, in particular, on the smartphone market, which is probably the most popular device among electronics.
Many Russian consumers are probably worried about whether the coronavirus can get into a package with a smartphone from China? We have already answered this question in this article.
Undoubtedly, the drop in phone shipments will affect Russia as well. The number of new devices on store shelves will be noticeably less in these months, and sellers on Aliexpress can significantly raise the prices of already released devices. Already, if you go to Aliexpress, you can see an increase in the cost of smartphones. For example, not so long ago I purchased the Mi 9 Lite for 14 thousand rubles, today the device is offered for 17-18 thousand. Therefore, now is the time to sell your phones bought on Ali through Avito, for example, so that in the future, when the situation with the coronavirus returns to normal, to buy a new device at a better price.
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