Stagnant supply and crippled demand will lead to a 30% decline in global smartphone production in the first half of the year, according to a research report from market research company ABI Research.
The report said that the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic had a crucial impact on the global mobile device market. Subsequently, due to labor shortages and affected logistics, the global mobile device market experienced a large-scale production disruption and related supply chain stagnation.
Since China is the manufacturing center of most mobile devices in the world and one of the largest markets for mobile devices, the mobile device market is experiencing delays in shipments and slowing development of next-generation products.
Among them, shipments of 5G smartphones in 2020 will be much lower than previously expected, mainly due to stagnation in the supply chain and impaired demand.
Significantly, in the short term, there will be an adverse effect on 5G devices, said David McQueen, 5G Devices Research Director at ABI Research.
No sooner had 5G smartphones started to gain some traction and break into the market in significant numbers, than the outbreak will now trigger a suppression of its near-term growth, pushing out the development and introduction of affordable 5G phones, McQueen explains.
This move to lower price tiers was expected to become a key driver for boosting 5G smartphone shipments in 2020, but the desired impact will now be lessened throughout the year due to the outbreak.
In order to stimulate market demand, the price reduction policy is expected to be a key driving factor for boosting 5G smartphone shipments in 2020.
The research firm said the long-term effects of the current new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic are more difficult to assess.
Although the sharp decline in smartphone production may be temporary, the supply chain will take some time to fully recover, and the epidemic will have an impact on consumers' long-term income and will reduce their demand for high-end equipment.
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