Theta Android News: COVID-19 pandemic leads to 40% drop in smartphone sales

The current coronavirus pandemic is taking its toll on the world at large, and it's hitting the smartphone industry particularly hard. According to Strategy Analytics, smartphone end-user YoY sales plummeted by 39% last month, while shipments declined 38% YoY.

The COVID-19 outbreak was in full swing in China this February, which disrupted the smartphone supply chain and, subsequently, depressed consumer demand. Samsung remained on top of the industry in both shipments and sales, with Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo trailing behind.

Interestingly, Strategy Analytics' numbers reveal that Xiaomi passed Huawei in overall sales and shipments during this crisis. We suspect that's partially due to the fact that Xiaomi released its latest flagship in February: the Xiaomi Mi 10.

Huawei is also getting the short end of the stick because of the current US trade ban. The company has already been losing momentum in the industry and it expects sales numbers to drop as the year goes on.

Unfortunately, this probably isn't the end of the industry's woes. We will most likely see overall smartphones sales continue to decline until the pandemic blows over.