We have seen it coming since the beginning of the year, so it is not a surprise that now the analytical firms of the mobile industry are making it official, and it is that the sales of smartphones and computers will drop significantly during 2020 due to the epidemic. of COVID-19 that is already making its impact felt across various industries. In this sense, the consulting firm IDC anticipates that shipments of smartphones and computers will fall by 2.3% and 9% in 2020, respectively . 

For its part, China is trying to recover from its daze over the Coronavirus outbreak. The Chinese government’s efforts to provide incentives and bonuses will help improve the situation during the final quarters of the year, however, only actual shipments of smartphones will reveal how well the market is recovering. 

IDC Forecasts a 2.3% Fall in 2020 : IDC expects smartphone sales to decline in 2020

As a consequence of the foregoing, the IDC expects a total of 1,399 million shipments of smartphones during 2020 , which represents 2.3% less compared to 2019. And speaking in immediate terms, a drop is expected sales of 10.6% during the first quarter of 2020. 

The IDC stated that, when making these projections, it contemplated optimistic, probable and pessimistic scenarios about the Coronavirus. However, the Coronavirus is not the only factor to take into account . Another problem for major phone makers is that February and March are typically periods when most market leaders launch their flagships. The latter is already being affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. On top of that, many of the final pre-production tests and product debugging have also been delayed, creating potential problems for phones that are scheduled for release in the second half of the year. 

On the other hand, things are expected to improve in 2021 , as IDC forecasts 6.3% annual growth, which translates to roughly 1.42 billion device shipments. This growth will be driven by the rise of 5G smartphones , which will be in the sights of most users by then due to the maturing  of the 5G infrastructure and their availability.