Apple has reportedly shipped around 2.5 million iPhones in China in March as the world economy continues to look down the barrel of a deep and prolonged recession because of the pandemic. The data, which comes from a government think tank called the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), claims that more than 21 million smartphone units were shipped in the country last month, a growth of more than 200 percent over February, but still down 21 percent over the same period last year.
In case of Apple, the company shipped barely 500,000 iPhones in China during February when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak in the country. Chinese retailers and factories started taking their first tentative steps towards some semblance of normalcy towards the later part of March as they resumed operations amidst the government’s efforts to kick-start the economy following the lockdown.
Apple, in fact, has already reduced its revenue forecast for 2020 because of the pandemic. The company released a note to its shareholders back in February, informing them that it does not expect to meet its revenue guidance for the quarter ended March 31. The company back then had cited closed factories in China and the reduced demand for discretionary electronics in the country as the main reasons behind the revised revenue guidance.
Even as China is recovering from the pandemic, the novel virus is wreaking havoc through much of the rest of the world, with countries like Italy, Spain, the UK and the US being among the worst affected. The US, in particular, has been the worst hit, losing more than 20,000 people to deadly disease. Cases are also on the rise in India even as the country remains a laggard in terms of testing on a per capita basis.
