TECH

Global smartphone production is expected to fall 16.5% in Q2, says consultancy

Global smartphone production is expected to drop a record 16.5% to 287 million units in the second quarter compared to the previous year, consultancy TrendForce said. Although supply chains have resumed after weeks of downtime, the coronavirus pandemic has reached demand for devices.
Samsung and Apple will maintain their first and third place in the ranking, but both are expected to lose market share to Chinese rivals, the consultancy said on Thursday.
This comes after a 10% drop in world production in the first quarter, when the pandemic spread and peaked in China before sweeping Europe and the United States. TrendForce reduced its annual production forecast to 1.24 billion smartphones, down 11.3% from 2019, from 1.35 billion units.
"The pandemic is now having an effect on the demand side of the smartphone market, affecting the world's major economies," said TrendForce. The company estimates that iPhone production fell by almost 9%, to about 38 million units in the quarter ended in March, and expects an additional drop of 2 million units in the current quarter.
Apple's market share will fall to 12.6% this quarter, from 13.5% in the last quarter, while Samsung's share will decrease 3 percentage points to 20.3% in the second quarter, according to TrendForce. "Chinese brands are putting constant pressure on Samsung in the Southeast Asian and Indian markets every day," added the company.
Huawei, which saw revenue growth slow sharply in the first quarter, is expected to produce around 48 million phones in the quarter to meet the recovery in domestic demand, up 2 million from the first quarter. 

International agencies