The coronavirus has had a devastating impact on the regularly thriving smartphone industry in China, but there's cause for hope ... it's starting to show signs of life again.
Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the sale of smartphones, which reportedly resulted in Apple having one of its worst months ever in China in February ... with only half a million iPhones sold to its 1.4 BILLION people.
That low amount's due to 3 factors -- reduced supply because of factory shutdowns, retail stores being closed, and of course ... loss of expendable income for Chinese citizens.
A survey of 1,300 smartphone owners found that 37 percent were holding off on purchasing a new one, and 32 percent were delaying an upgrade to 5G ... something that was widely anticipated in 2020.
Compare this to 40 percent responding that they've delayed buying cars, furniture and appliances, as well ... it's fair to say smartphones are lumped into the big-ticket item category that's low on people's purchase priority list.
On the plus side, sales bounced back slightly in March ... with total mobile phone shipments from all companies increasing by 3 times over February. Apple shipped nearly 5 times more units ... but smartphone sales overall were still down 20 percent in March compared to 2019.
Clearly could be worse, though, and with China being the first country to go on lockdown ... it's hopeful it can be the first to bounce back.