According to IDC, the global smartphone market will decline 11.9% YoY in 2020, with shipments totaling 1.2 billion units. The decline will apparently be largely due to the recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. As per the report, the market will decline 18.2% in the first half of the year as the macroeconomic impact of the pandemic continues to affect consumer spending.
“What started as a supply-side crisis has evolved into a global demand-side problem. Nationwide lockdowns and rising unemployment have reduced consumer confidence and reprioritized spending towards essential goods, directly impacting the uptake of smartphones in the short term”, said senior IDC research analyst, Sangeetika Srivastava.
She, however, exuded confidence that 5G will be a catalyst for growth even as consumer sentiment remains depressed. “5G is expected to be a catalyst throughout the forecast period, which will play a vital role in worldwide smartphone market recovery in 2021”, she said. The report further suggests that the market will recover to grow at around 10% next year. The rate of growth, however, will settle at around 5% in the following years.
The grim report comes just days after Gartner said that global smartphone sales declined 20.2 percent in the Q1, 2020. According to the report, four out of the top-five smartphone vendors recorded a decline in sales during the period. While Samsung, Huawei, Apple and Oppo all saw reduced sales, Xiaomi was the only company to have bucked the trend. Meanwhile, worldwide PC sales are also expected to decline 7% this year according to a recent report from Canalys.
