Smartphone sales in China collapsing due to coronavirus

A lot of sales projections made weeks or months ago have to be thrown out of the window as the novel coronavirus outbreak is causing more economic than health havoc. DigiTimes writes smartphone sales in China are expected to drop 9 percent this quarter, and that's in the optimistic scenario that the outbreak can be contained by the end of February:

The China smartphone market is very likely to see a sharp drop in shipments in first-quarter 2020, and in a more optimistic scenario, smartphone shipments to the China market will drop 9% if the outbreak can be contained by the end of February, according to some observers. This is bad news for everyone involved in the smartphone market, including vendors of mobile processors. MediaTek, who has a strong presnece in China's handset maket, may see a sequential decline of as much as 15% in revenues in the first quarter. But foundry house TSMC is not ready to revise its guidance for the first-quarter sales, which accroding to its forecast given last month, will decrease slightly compared to fourth-quarter 2019.

Besides demand, the outbreak is also affecting supply as factories remain closed or are running at lower utilization rates.