Outbreak impact: China smartphone and AP shipments

The coronavirus outbreak has resulted in labor shortages and shipment disruptions in China's supply chain. In assessing the situations of leading firms resuming factory operation as of February 10, 2020, Digitimes Research believes if the epidemic gets under control and stops escalating while more factories are able to resume operation in March, smartphone shipments by the top-4 China-based brands are estimated to fall 19.5% on year in first-quarter 2020, larger than the 11% decline forecast originally in January.

Based on Digitimes Research's analyses on the premise that the coronavirus outbreak will gradually come under control in second-quarter 2020, China will remain the world's largest market in 2020 in terms of 5G phone shipments.

China-based smartphone brands will look to boost 5G phone penetration in China by introducing affordable 5G phones and will bring 5G phone prices to the range between US$280-360 starting second-quarter 2020 with the help from Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung Electronics as they will begin volume production of their mid-range 5G smartphone APs.