The largest vendors are brave and say that they are doing well and smartphone sales are recovering. But the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis are not going away. It is not necessary to count on a rapid recovery in sales in the smartphone market, the recession will drag on. Analysts have begun revising their forecasts for 2020. True, now they look more optimistic than before.
The specialists of the company Strategy Analytics expect that this year will be one of the hardest in the smartphone market, a serious decline will be recorded. The reasons are offcrouse: coronavirus, quarantine restrictions and, as a result, a crisis. According to their forecasts, the decline compared to last year will amount to 11% and the global shipments of smartphones will be at the level of 1.26 billion units. Previously, analysts had an expectations that the decline to be 15.6%. The forecast was adjusted due to a gradual recovery in demand for mobile devices in a number of markets. In particular, we are talking about the United States, India and Europe.
Analysts expect the smartphone market to grow in 2021 and reach 2019 shipments in 2022. This will be facilitated by an increase in demand for 5G mobile phones, as well as falling prices for devices supporting fifth-generation networks. The increase will be at the level of 9% and the supply of smartphones next year in quantitative terms will amount to 1.4 billion units.
Samsung will retain the leadership and will be able to control 21% of the market share. In second place will be Apple with a share of 15.3%, and Huawei will close the top three.
5G Smartphones Accounted for 1/3 of China’s Smartphone Sales in the Second Quarter
We have already talked about a new report released by Counterpoint Research. But in that article, we were mainly talking about the incredible sales results of the iPhone in the Chinese market. As for now, let’s get acquainted with the performance of all major smartphone brands in China in the second quarter of 2020. Interestingly, Apple has no role in the 5G smartphones market.
As the company claims, in the second quarter of 2020, sales of smartphones in China fell by 17% year-on-year. But increased by 9% month-on-month. Although the new coronavirus epidemic has been basically controlled in China, the demand for smartphones has not yet returned to the level before the epidemic.
Counterpoint Research believes that although business activities in China have gradually recovered since the epidemic weakened, consumer confidence remains sluggish. Both OEMs and Chinese operators are promoting 5G smartphones by lowering the prices of both 5G equipment and packages. This has pushed up the 5G penetration rate. In the second quarter, 1/3 of the smartphones sold in China were 5G phones, ranking first in the world. But this still cannot offset the downward trend of the entire market.
