Global smartphone shipments are to fall nearly 12 percent to 1.2 billion units this year, market research firm International Data Corp (IDC) said on Wednesday, citing lower consumer spending due to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual forecast follows a record 11.7 percent year-on-year drop in the three months ending March.
The latest projections are a dramatic revision of an annual forecast by IDC in February, after the virus first hit, that predicted a 2.3 percent decline.
Photo: Wang Yi-hung, Taipei Times
The pandemic has not only disrupted business supply chains, with major smartphone makers such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co flagging financial hits, but also squeezed consumer spending worldwide.
“What started as a supply-side crisis has evolved into a global demand-side problem,” IDC senior research analyst Sangeetika Srivastava said in a statement. “Nationwide lockdowns and rising unemployment have reduced consumer confidence and reprioritized spending toward essential goods, directly impacting the uptake of smartphones in the short term.”
Apple, which was forced to shut retail stores in the US and Europe following the outbreak, introduced discounts on the iPhone 11 in China and released a new low-price SE model to weather a plunge in global smartphone demand.
Taipei-based research firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in April that it expected global smartphone production to slump a record 16.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier.
That follows a 10 percent drop in output worldwide in the March quarter, when the outbreak spread and peaked in China before sweeping through Europe and the US.
However, shipments from China’s factories to vendors rose 17 percent in April from a year earlier, suggesting signs of an early rebound in domestic demand in the world’s largest smartphone market.
In China, where the economy has begun to reopen and factories have resumed operations, IDC expects a single-digit decline this year.
Europe, on the other hand, has suffered a heavier toll from the pandemic and is expected to experience deeper falls in spending and demand, it added.
The research firm also expects upcoming 5G deployment to help smartphone shipments recover next year, adding that it does not expect growth to return until the first quarter of next year.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
NOT TO WORRY: Some people are concerned funds might continue moving out of the country, but the central bank said financial account outflows are not unusual in Taiwan Taiwan’s outbound investments hit a new high last year due to investments made by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other major manufacturers to boost global expansion, the central bank said on Thursday. The net increase in outbound investments last year reached a record US$21.05 billion, while the net increase in outbound investments by Taiwanese residents reached a record US$31.98 billion, central bank data showed. Chen Fei-wen (陳斐紋), deputy director of the central bank’s Department of Economic Research, said the increase was largely due to TSMC’s efforts to expand production in the US and Japan. Investments by Vanguard International
WARNING SHOT: The US president has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all imported vehicles, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that a trade deal with China was “possible” — a key target in the US leader’s tariffs policy. The US in 2020 had already agreed to “a great trade deal with China” and a new deal was “possible,” Trump said. Trump said he expected Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to visit the US, without giving a timeline for his trip. Trump also said that he was talking to China about TikTok, as the US seeks to broker a sale of the popular app owned by Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動). Trump last week said that he had
RSS