Coronavirus Outbreak May Halve China's Smartphone Sales in First Quarter

Smartphone sales in China could be reduced by as much as 50 percent in the first quarter of 2020 because of the impact the coronavirus outbreak is having on the retail and manufacturing sectors, according to new research.

foxconn iphone production
Speaking to Reuters, research firm Canalys said that the closure of production facilities and retail stores by Apple and other tech companies will not only hit smartphone sales, but also impact product launches scheduled to take place in the first quarter of this year.

"Vendors' planned product launches will be canceled or delayed, given that large public events are not allowed in China," said Canalys researchers. "It will take time for vendors to change their product launch roadmaps in China, which is likely to dampen 5G shipments."

Apple isn't expected to unveil a 5G phone until September, when the "iPhone 12" series is expected to be announced, but other vendors like Huawei reportedly hoped to see a boost in sales on the back of China's 5G network rollout.

Apple in early February closed all of its corporate offices, stores, and contact centers in China due to the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan. The stores aren't expected to reopen as planned on February 10 because of ongoing concerns.

Meanwhile, Foxconn's Zhengzhou site, which is the most critical production site for the ‌iPhone‌ 11 and the upcoming low-cost ‌iPhone‌, is seeing significant delays. The plant originally planned to resume work on February 2, but that has been postponed by at least one week.

There have already been multiple reports suggesting these closures will have an impact on Apple device production, and we could see dwindling device supplies and lengthening shipping times in the near future.

According to one report, Apple's ability to meet supply/demand balance of AirPods and AirPods Pro is in jeopardy due to the outbreak. The delays may also affect the upcoming low-cost ‌iPhone‌ that Apple is expected to launch as early as this March.

In his most recent report, respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo declined to provide new shipment forecasts in light of the coronavirus outbreak because "there are still many uncertainties" but last week he lowered his iPhone shipment forecast by 10 percent to 36 to 40 million units during Q1 2020 due to the coronavirus.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
ipad pro 2024

Gurman: New iPad Pro and MacBook Pro Models With M5 Chips to Launch Later This Year

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:06 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPad Pro models with the M5 chip will "launch this year," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the new iPad Pro models have progressed to an "advanced testing" stage, and he expects mass production of the devices to begin in the second half of this year. If that timeframe is met, the new iPad Pro models could launch...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...

Top Rated Comments

lunarworks Avatar
67 months ago

Seems strange to be concerned about smartphone sales during an epidemic but okay
Business research firm does research on how an epidemic might affect business. Shocking.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
victorm1 Avatar
67 months ago
Seems strange to be concerned about smartphone sales during an epidemic but okay
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nicho Avatar
67 months ago

I’m not referring to the original research, I’m referring to this very article. Just because some analyst somewhere did some BI study, doesn’t mean it needs to be trumpeted by the press. I should know, I work in the consulting industry.
Apple-focused news and rumors website reports on matters relating to said company. Shocking.


Instead of screaming how I can't buy a new iPhone, I'll be glad that there are no infections happening in the UK so far (there are four infected people, and over 100 people coming from China under quarantine, but there are no known infections in the UK so far, and that would be the thing that would worry me).
You jinxed it.

https://news.sky.com/story/uk-coronavirus-cases-double-as-four-more-test-positive-11930618
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
smirking Avatar
67 months ago
Can none of you see the pattern? the Wolf has cried so many times I've stopped paying attention.
It's interesting you should use that example. You do remember what happened at the end of that story, don't you?

The wolf eventually shows up. Just like all of those Category 4/5 hurricanes are going to miss major population centers and fizzle out so that everyone who takes advice to evacuate are mere lemming fools... until a Hurricane Katrina hits and they're drowning their attics.

Enjoy your superiority.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
smirking Avatar
67 months ago
Ebola has been prominent in Africa for all these years and people barely talk about it anymore.
[LIST=1]
* Ebola is bad, but we know exactly what it can do and the things that can be done to limit its transmission.
* There is a vaccine for Ebola ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_vaccine').

We have neither of these conditions for the Novel Coronavirus. The part of not knowing exactly what it can do is the part that's most alarming because we simply do not know if it's just a pest or a killer.

Even if early indications are that it's just a pest that gives you the sniffles, until we have a chance to do more research on it, there's a fear that it could mutate into a killer. That fear is especially founded if you consider that a couple other coronaviruses had a much higher fatality rate. SARS killed about 10% of the people that got it and MERS killed 35% of its victims.

That's why health agencies around the world are freaking out. The spread of the latest coronavirus has already far exceeded the spread of the other ones before it and we just don't know what the long term implications are. So far it doesn't appear to be highly lethal, but even that's not entirely certain. It's possible that people who get it develop elevated risks for cancer or heart disease... you name it.

That's the problem with not knowing what we're fighting so it's a far better idea to possibly overreact than to try and push back on the ocean when the town is already underwater.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
480951 Avatar
67 months ago

I actually think it's funny that anyone takes these pandemic scares seriously. it's that time of the year folks! Time for the CDC to come up with a new disease that's gonna kill us all! It's every February too. Let's look at the list shall we, and none of it's complete or in order but here we go:

1. The SARS epidemic
2. Killer Bees going to come to the USA
3. Hanta Virus
4. Bird Flu
5. Pig Flu
6. Zika Virus
7. Ebola Virus
8. Mad Cow Disease
9. Should I even add Y2K???

Meanwhile I enjoy sitting back, munching some popcorn and watching the lemmings...
This is so dumb. You realize nearly all of those didn’t escalate because of the precautions and attention given by governments, the CDC/WHO etc right? Even with Y2K months of work was put into preventing anything from happening.

So you’re essentially complaining that people did their jobs too well and contained these things.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)