Coronavirus: Smartphone industry suffers biggest-ever drop amid production woes

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The smartphone industry suffered its biggest-ever fall during February after the coronavirus outbreak caused phone makers to shutter factories and governments to warn shoppers to stay indoors.

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Shipments of phones fell from 99.2m units in February 2019 to 61.8m units during the same month in 2020 - a 38 per cent year-on-year decline, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

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The fall is the largest in the history of the smartphone market, the firm claimed, after the supply and demand for handsets plunged across the world as factories shut and manufacturers struggled to source key components.

Despite a drop in the number of daily confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China over the weekend, global smartphone shipments (the number sent to retailers rather than sold to consumers) could fall even further throughout March.

"We started to track smartphone market back to 2003. This is the biggest ever fall historically," Linda Sui, analyst at Strategy Analytics, told CNBC.

Demand fell for all kinds of phone models, from the cheaper handsets to the top-of-the-range flagships, a probable knock-on effect of governments discouraging shoppers from visiting high streets worldwide.

Footfall on the UK's high streets saw an "unprecedented decline" last week, with consumer activity down 41 per cent year-on-year, according to retail tracker Springboard.

The drop was "three times greater than the worst result we have ever previously recorded," Diana Wehrle, Springboard's insight director, said, comparing the decline in footfall between last week and the week prior to it as on par with the drop only ever seen in the week post-Christmas.

Phone manufacturers are racing to get their production lines back to normal in the face of the pandemic.

Samsung, the world's largest phone maker, was forced to close one of its factories in its native South Korea after one of its staff contracted the virus.

A woman wearing a respiratory mask checks her smartphone as she waits at the Termini railway station in Rome (Photo: Getty)

Apple warned of a global iPhone shortage after the virus caused its manufacturing sites in China to temporarily close last month, adding that it was expecting to miss its previously-projected quarterly revenue targets as a result.

The company announced the closure of all its retail stores outside Greater China until 27 March two weeks ago, as part of measures to reduce crowd gatherings and minimise the possibility of spreading and contracting the virus.

Apple had previously limited the number of iPhones a sole customer could buy to two devices per model per person, a restriction that's now been lifted for iPhones but stays in place for some iPads and MacBook laptops.

While smartphone shipments have taken a blow, sales of computer monitors, keyboards and webcams have leapt as millions of workers turn their homes into remote offices.

Monitor sales grew by 133.9 per cent during the week ending 14 March compared to the same period the previous year, alongside keyboards, mice and stylus pens, according to data from data firm GfK.

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