China the original epicenter of the Coronavirus was in complete lockdown, until recently. The smartphone industry fell down pretty bad, as sales and production, both took a hit. Apple’s iPhone saw one of the worst financial segments in the month of February. The company’s sales fell down by almost 45-50%.
But, there is good news for all smartphone companies. Because, one of the largest economic countries in the world, China, finally lifted its lockdown. This means the smartphone industry can now steadily go back to normal.
Apple had previously stopped all shipments of its flagship devices. But since March the shipments jumped by 20% from previous years. The number currently stands somewhere around 2 million units. This is based on the information provided by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology, Government of China. But not everything is as good as these iOS devices.
#iPhone sales in #China staged a dramatic rebound in March, according to new data from Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, total handset sales up 241% from Feb. (Not surprising given line outside @Apple store in Beijing this weekend. Social distancing a challenge!) pic.twitter.com/sotLl9nmOK
— Eunice Yoon (@onlyyoontv) April 14, 2020
The general smartphone market of China including Android phones saw a drop of 25% in shipment. This brought the number down to 21 million units of smartphones.
Apple’s production and assembly plant in China is run by a 3rd party franchise, HonHai Precision Industry Co. The company kept productions at a minimal state till March, after which they ramped up the process to meet general demands.
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By late March, the company produced almost 300,000 units daily. This is very much close to the general output before the coronavirus lockdown. Currently, Apple is working on a new design of iPhone taking renditions from the current iPad. These phones may use 5G to keep growing with user demand.
Starting of production by Apple helped the company keep most of its employees as well as recruit a few more. This was a wise move after the pandemic.
Suryapratim Ray is an engineer, author, robotics hobbyist, and an active Quoran. Being a technical blogger, he covers the good, bad, and ugly of science on a regular basis at Sciencenews18. In addition to his passion for writing, he’s equally keen on learning classical music.