Apple Sells Fewer Than 500,000 Smartphones in China in February Amid Coronavirus

Early Indicators Suggest Chinese Economy Cratered in February Following Coronavirus Outbreak

News Analysis After the Federal Reserve cut benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points last week, the focus has shifted to China—and how far will Beijing go to stimulate China’s economy. Beijing has urged businesses to reopen their doors as the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak sidelined business activity during February. But economic activity in China has declined dramatically. Early readings on the state of the economy suggest that China could plunge into contraction, officially, for the first time since the 1970s. Early February Chinese economic indicators are shockingly bad. Chinese exports plunged at the beginning of the year. Total exports in January and February declined by 17.2 percent compared to the same period in 2019, according to latest official data from the General Administration of Customs released March 7. China had…

SHANGHAI鈥擜pple sold fewer than half a million smartphones in China in February, government data showed on Mar. 9, as the coronavirus outbreak halved demand for all such devices.

China placed curbs on travel and asked residents to avoid public places in late January, just ahead of the Lunar New Year festival, a major gift-giving holiday. Those restrictions stayed largely in place through most of February.

In total, mobile phone brands shipped a total of 6.34 million devices in February, down 54.7 percent from 14 million in the same month last year, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed (CAICT).

It was also the lowest level for February since at least 2012, when CAICT started publishing data.

Android brands, which include devices made by Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi, accounted for most of the drop, as they collectively saw shipments decline from 12.72 million units in February 2019 to 5.85 million, the data showed.

Shipments of Apple devices slumped to 494,000, from 1.27 million in February 2019. In January, its shipments had held steady at just over 2 million.

Research firms IDC and Canalys previously forecast that overall smartphone shipments would drop by about 40 percent in the first quarter as the virus outbreak hit demand and brought supply-chain problems.

Apple’s branded stores in China were shut for at least two weeks in February as fears over the coronavirus outbreak mounted.

The company’s chief executive, Tim Cook, wrote a letter to investors that month warning it would not meet its initial revenue guidance for the current quarter due to demand issues.

By Brenda Goh

This article is from the Internet:Apple Sells Fewer Than 500,000 Smartphones in China in February Amid Coronavirus

Amid Virus Outbreak, China Suddenly Cancels Flights and Train Schedules in Major Cities

Two major cities in Guangdong province recently cancelled most of their flights to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, drawing public speculation that the changes were precautions related to the novel coronavirus outbreak. A large number of passenger train routes in major cities across the country were also cancelled. Airlines stated “public security issues,” but didn’t give details. State-run media quoted Air China staff who said: “could be related to coronavirus outbreak.” In recent days, local media reported several cases of novel coronavirus patients who died in Guangdong province shortly after being confirmed with the virus. According to flight-tracking websites, almost all flights from Shenzhen and Guangzhou to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou were cancelled after 5:15 p.m. local time on March 5. Some of the flights to Tianjin, Nanjing, Shenyang, and other…