Following four quarters of low sales, Apple has reported a spike in iPhone purchases. The news comes alongside the introduction of 5G to iPhones.
According to CNET, for the last four quarters, Apple has seen significant declines in iPhone sales. However, late 2019 saw a near 8% increase. This is reportedly due to price adjustments and sales. Newer iPhone generations are seeing price subsidies, and older phones are becoming a lot cheaper. Phone plans have also seen significant sales and deals, which is arguably a large reason for the spike in sales.
Vice president of the research firm Gartner, Annette Zimmermann argues that the spike in phone sales is largely due to the decrease in pricing for the iPhone 11. Zimmermann also went on to say that despite the decrease in sales over the last four quarters, countries like China and France actually saw an increase in iPhone sales. It still stands, however, that iPhone sales dropped an entire percentage world wide. The rankings for phone sales by country are as follows. Number one is China at nearly 400 million smartphones sold, India with 152 million, and the US not far behind. These rankings are significant because the US actually used to be number two, but were just recently surpassed by India.
Apple was not the only vendor that saw sales drop. Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo also saw decreases. Apple and Xiaomi were the only vendors to see increases in the fourth quarter of 2019. At this point in time, Samsung is number one among the venders as they hold 17.3% of market shares. Apple is a close second with 17.1% of market shares.
According to Gartner, the widespread fear caused by the Coronavirus (now named COVID-19) is likely to cause further sales drops among phone providers who typically sell devices in person. Vendors like Xiaomi, who specialize in selling products through online stores, are expected to experience the opposite, as there is no risk of contracting the virus through the web. It is expected that the virus will hurt China’s overall sales in the coming quarter as they’re ground zero for this outbreak.
Despite being banned from American markets, Huawei saw an increase of 18.6% This increase is because of sales in China. With COVID-19 raging in China and the American ban in place, it’s likely Huawei will suffer significant phone sale losses all year long.
According to a conclusion made by various analysts at Gartner, it’s believed that 5G is to be added to iPhones later this year. More specifically in the third quarter.