Gartner: Smartphone shipments saw the “worst decline ever” in the first quarter

The global smartphone market suffered its largest annual contraction ever in the first quarter of this year, according to a new Gartner report, which it attributed to the impact of the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

The company said shipments fell to 299.1 million units from 374.9 million in the first quarter of 2019 as lockdown measures and economic uncertainty caused a "collapse" in demand and consumers stopped spending on non-essential items.

[[328565]]

Senior research analyst Anshul Gupta said the outbreak had caused the "worst decline ever" in smartphone shipments, noting that Chinese vendors and Apple had been "severely impacted" by factory closures in China.

The firm noted that three of the top five vendors suffered double-digit declines: Samsung topped the list with 55.3 million units shipped, but this was down 22.7% from the first quarter of 2019; Huawei came in second with 42.4 million units, down 27.3%; and Oppo, in fifth place, saw its shipments fall 19.1% to 23.9 million units.

Apple, in third place, saw its shipments fall 8.2% to 40.9 million units, while Xiaomi, in fourth place, saw its shipments rise 1.4% to 27.8 million units, mainly due to strong demand for its sub-brand Redmi devices.

Gartner said Samsung's difficulties were caused by "inefficient online channels" and the closure of its retail operations.

The report said Huawei will face a "challenging year" because despite Huawei's efforts to develop its mobile services ecosystem, the company is "unlikely" to attract new buyers in international markets due to the lack of Google services.

Annette Zimmermann, vice president of research, said Apple had started the year well thanks to "strong momentum" from its new product lineup, but the pandemic has put a damper on a "record" period for the vendor.