Impact Of COVID-19, Smartphone Sales Decline 20.4 Percent

JAKARTA - Global smartphone sales experienced a decline of 20.4 percent in the second quarter (Q2) of 2020. This is thought to be due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected the entire world.

According to the Gartner report, a market research company from Stamford, United States (US), the highest vendor position at this time on a year-on-year basis (YOY) is occupied by Samsung. The company recorded a gross sales of 54.759 million units from the total smartphone market of around 18.6 percent.

"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a negative impact on Samsung's performance in the second quarter of 2020," said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner, as quoted by Gizmochina, Wednesday, August 26.

Although still ranked as the number one cellphone seller, the number of cellphone shipments from the Korean giant has decreased from last year's 27.1 percent.

In second place, Huawei managed to sell 54.1 million units of mobile phones by controlling 18.4 percent of the smartphone market share in Q2. However, Huawei also experienced a 6.8 percent decline in sales.

In fact, Huawei's sales figures match Samsung's only 630,000 units different. But keep in mind, if Huawei is currently at odds with the US government, regarding a trade ban.

The third place is filled by producers from Cupertino, USA, namely Apple, with gross shipments of 38.386 million units in Q2. This sales figure is not much different from the previous year, where Apple got 13.0 percent with a decrease of only 0.4 percent year-on-year.

Xiaomi is in fourth place, which recorded sales figures of 26,0952 million units or 8.9 percent of the global smartphone market. In fifth place is Oppo with 23.61 million units or 8.0 percent of global sales.

From the report, Gartner explained that the decline in cellphones worldwide was not only due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also a result of the overall decline in the two largest cellphone markets.

For example, China recorded a 7 percent drop in sales this quarter, while mobile phone sales in India fell by 46 percent. The two countries are the first and second largest markets in the world.