Samsung is not affected by Covid-19

The Covid-19 pneumonia epidemic "hurt" most of the major global smartphone companies by setting up factories in China, except for Samsung made in Vietnam.

According to Phonearena, Chinese smartphone companies will suffer the biggest decline in sales because most of their factories are located in their home countries. Citing Canalys predictions, the outbreak of corona pneumonia affected 50% of sales in the first quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, Apple also acknowledged Covid-19, which seriously affected sales of iPhones and other products. In a statement released on February 17, Apple said it would not meet its second-quarter financial business target this year due to losses in both production and sales. but mainly iPhone phones.

Foxconn, the device manufacturing partner for Apple, launched several production lines last week. But before the development of the pneumonia epidemic in a bad direction, the company only dared to set a production target of 50% of its normal output.

China is not only the most populous country in the world, but also a huge market for smartphones. In the fourth quarter of 2019, 85 million phones were shipped, and 369 million units were sold in 2019, more than double the 148 million units of the other "billion-dollar market" in India.

Meanwhile, Samsung currently has most smartphone factories in Vietnam, so the impact of pneumonia is also much lower and in fact, facilities in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen are still operating normally.

According to Reuters, the impact of Covid-19 on smartphone production in Vietnam has so far been "limited", meaning that global sales of Samsung smartphones remain relatively stable until the end. current quarter. However, in the far future, the Korean company is still affected by many components in the Korean electronics firm's component supply chain, which is dependent on its Chinese partner.

The worst quarter in 5 years

Statistics of Counterpoint Research in 2019, among the top five leading smartphone manufacturers in the world, including Samsung, Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi and Oppo, four of which are located mainly in China, except Samsung. Some analysts believe that the shutdown or only moderate operation caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 will cause not only China but also the worldwide smartphone market.

According to TrendForce, global smartphone production in the first quarter of 2020 is still expected to reach 275 million units, down 12% from the same period last year. This is also the quarter with the lowest smartphone output in the past 5 years.

TrendForce also said that, even if the Covid-19 epidemic was prevented at the end of February, the situation in the smartphone market is not necessarily positive. The research firm predicts that total phone production in 2020 is estimated at 1.38 billion units, down 1.3% from last year and the lowest since 2016.

2020 is expected to be the time when 5G smartphones will become popular. However, the outbreak of pneumonia has caused many research companies to adjust their forecast. According to Digitimes Research, this year's smartphone output may be only about 1,278 billion units, of which "less than 200 million devices have 5G".