New chapter where we talk about the effects of Conoravirus in the world of technology, specifically in relation to Apple. According to Reuters, Apple stopped selling around 500.000 iPhones in February, only in China, due to the restrictions that the Chinese government implemented in the country due to the coronavirus.
These figures are equivalent to almost 60% of iPhone sales and they are worse than those forecast by IDC, which stated that during the first quarter of 2019, sales would drop 40% due to the impact of the coronavirus. The Chinese government's driving ban on free circulation last month has paralyzed the country.
The Chinese Academy of Technology, from which Reuters obtained the data, says that smartphone brands shipped a total of 6,34 million devices in February, which is a 55% reduction, compared to the 14 million shipments that occurred in February 2019.
Asian brands, Huawei and Xiaomi, have been the ones that have suffered the most from the effects of the coronavirus, Since shipments of both together went from 12,72 million in February 2019 to just 5,85 million last month.
The number of infected and deaths in China has decreased significantly in China, according to government data, so the coronavirus is no longer a problem to be taken into account. Now we have the problem in the rest of the world.
In mid-February, Apple announced that it was forced to review the financial forecasts for the first quarter of 2020, Due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, in 4.000 million dollars in income, a figure that, seeing the evolution that the virus has had, is probably much higher.
The lower customer demand in China coupled with the lack of supplies to make the iPhone are the two main factors that will affect, very seriously, to the economic results of Apple (and all technology companies) during this first quarter of 2020.