Phone sales to hit 10-year low in 2020 as coronavirus kills demand

Much-needed growth was expected in 2020, but not anymore
These predictions are based primarily on recent data from China, which shows that the lockdown massively affected demand for smartphones and mobile phones. In fact, the sales volume in January and February reportedly decline 44% from the same period in 2019.
The analyst firm in question is expecting similar drops in demand globally to the one experienced in China. That, combined with supply chain disruptions, will reportedly lead to a massive 29% drop in device shipments for the second quarter of 2020.
The second half of 2020 will be much more positive
CCS Insight says the second half of the year will be much more positive thanks to the improving situation and swift recovery in terms of demand for devices. The adoption of 5G-ready smartphones is also expected to grow.
However, it won’t all be plain sailing. Macroeconomic weaknesses in many major markets will continue to suppress sales in the second half of 2020. Even during the Holiday quarter when demand is at its highest, CCS Insight expects a year-on-year decline of 3%. That means major manufacturers including Apple, Samsung, and Huawei can all expect big impacts even towards the end of the year.
Huawei relies heavily on China and shouldn't feel as big of an impact in the second half of 2020 from coronavirus. But it'll probably be struggling with a lack of demand due to no Google services on its smartphones.
Huge growth numbers are now forecasted for 2021 and 2022
The upside to all of this chaos is that 2021 is now expected to be a pretty great year for the mobile phone industry. Shipments are expected to rise an impressive 12% year-on-year to 1.76 billion units, of which smartphones will account for 1.47 billion units, up 4% from 2019.
2022, on the other hand, could represent an all-time high for the mobile phone market with shipments growing to an incredible 1.99 billion units. That is even higher than the 1.98 billion sold in 2015 and can be primarily attributed to the 5G smartphone market.
The latter is expected to grow 10-fold this year to around 210 million units. But by the time 2024 comes around, the vast majority of devices shipped globally will be 5G-ready at shipments of around 1.15 billion units.