A recent Digitimes research report predicts a huge 19.5% drop on year in Q1 2020 of smartphone shipments by the top four China-based brands – that’s 11% more than forecast back in January. Coronovirus could impact Q2 predictions even harder, as labour shortages and logistics disruptions in China’s supply-chain continue unabated.
However, if speculations prove correct that Coronavirus comes under control in second-quarter 2020, China will remain the world’s largest market this year, bolstered by a boost of affordable 5G Chinese phones from Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung Electronics.