Global smartphone market hit hard by Covid-19 crisis

WORLDWIDE SMARTPHONE shipments decreased 11.7% year over year in the first quarter of 2020 — the market’s largest annual decline ever — according to preliminary data from International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “Although the first quarter usually experiences a sequential (quarter over quarter) decline in shipments, with the average sequential decline over the last three years hovering between -15% to -20%, this is the largest annual (year over year) decline ever,” reads the research company’s new release. Given Q1 2020 marked the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the peak of lockdowns in China (leading to the...