Sales of smartphones in February fell 14% on-year in the aftermath of the coronavirus that pulled down sales in China by 38% from the same period in 2019, according to market research firm Counterpoint on Mar. 27.
The global smartphone shipments in February also declined 18% on-year.
In total, just over 90 million smartphones were sold in February. Samsung Electronics was the market leader with a 21.9% share after selling over 20 million handsets. It was followed by Apple, that sold around 13 million to take a 14.4% share. In third place was Huawei Technologies with a 13.% market share, followed by Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Realme.
Counterpoint said Apple’s revenue suffered due to the coronavirus that shut down its Chinese operations for over two weeks. Huawei, on the other hand, saw only a percentage point fall as online sales covered for dropping offline sales.
The Elec is South Korea’s No.1 tech news platform.