The global smartphone market has hit ‘Corona 19 Direct Bomb’. In the second quarter, shipments suffered from an unprecedented recession, which fell nearly 40%.

In February, worldwide smartphone shipments remained at 61.8 million units, according to a report from market research firm Strategic Analytics (SA) on the 19th (local time). Such shipments were down 38% from the previous year’s 92.9 million units.

“As China’s supply and demand plummeted, the Asian market was generally weak and growth in the rest of the world slowed,” said Neal Moston, an analyst at SA. ”

He also added, “February is a period I want to forget in the history of the smartphone industry.”

■ “In order to recover demand, activation of online sales and discounts is necessary.”

It was foreseen that the smartphone market would be sluggish in the wake of Corona19. Apple warned that in the wake of Corona 19 in early February, it would not be able to reach its March quarterly earnings forecasts. This is because the factory in China, the iPhone production base, has been disrupted in production without normal operation. At the time, Apple even raised the possibility of a temporary iPhone shortage.

Corona 19 is also directly affecting smartphone demand. This is because the atmosphere of refraining from external activities continues as social distance is spread. It was also a bad thing that many smartphone makers, including Apple, had reduced store operations.

Even in March, the smartphone market is not expected to recover easily.

“We see signs of a temporary recovery in the Chinese market, but the global smartphone market is expected to remain weak in March,” said Yuan Wu, senior analyst at SA.

Although the spread of corona19 in China is showing a real sign, the North American and European markets are spreading more. It is an analysis that the groups with smartphone purchasing power continue to take a social street, leading to a contraction in the purchase of new devices.

He also recommended that the smartphone industry should move a little faster in order to boost demand for shrinking smartphone purchases. It is necessary to attract consumers through discount sales such as activating online sales or selling popular products such as smart watches.

■ Qualcomm CEO claims to be “close to normal level in March”

In the midst of this, Cnet said the smartphone market is slow in the industry, but there is also a prospect that it is recovering.

One of the representatives is Steve Molenkov, Qualcomm CEO. Molenkov said in a recent interview with CNBC, “In March, as Chinese smartphone purchases recovered, they returned to the same level as last year.” It was argued that it was hard in February, but good signals are showing in March.

He added that Qualcomm customers see the supply chain recovering to 70-80%.