For a stumbling smartphone market, the situation continued to deteriorate in 2020. The plateau and decline numbers have already hit COVID-19 hard. The pandemic has hampered the sale of non-essential items, especially items that are best enjoyed outside of the home. According to new characters from CanalysSmartphone shipments are expected to decline 10.7% over the course of the year.
There are a few notable silver linings. For starters, the adoption of 5G continues to grow. The company expects to ship around 280 million units in 2020, with the Greater China market accounting for the majority at 62%, thanks in part to lower-cost devices like the Realme V3, which sells for less than 150 US dollars. Dollars at retail outlets – a remarkable price for a next-generation wireless product.
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North America ranks second with around 15% of shipments, while EMEA and Asia-Pacific (excluding Greater China) are each expected to account for around 11%. A 5G-enabled iPhone 12 should also help accelerate adoption when it hits the market in the next month or so.
“In the aftermath of the lockdown, smartphone vendors tirelessly pushed ahead with new product launches, as well as online marketing and sales, and sparked consumer interest in the latest devices,” said the analyst Ben Stanton says in a press release. “The gradual reopening of offline branches and the improvement of logistics and production have given most markets the necessary impetus to move into a more stable second half of 2020.”
5G should have a positive impact on the industry – although the pandemic quickly hampered those plans. It probably helped prevent another drop in sales. The numbers are expected to recover somewhat in 2021 at 9.9% compared to the previous year. That’s not enough to get back to pre-2020 levels, but it would undoubtedly be a welcome sign for an industry that has been showing signs of decline for some time.