Apple reportedly sold less than 500,000 iPhones in China last month as coronavirus hit the smartphone market
- Chinese government stats say Apple only sold 494,000 iPhones in China in February, per Reuters.
- According to the statistics, the smartphone market took an overall hit of 54.7% compared to February last year.
- Apple warned last month that it wouldn't meet revenue guidance for the March quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak.
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Apple's business in China took a big hit in February according to Chinese government stats, Reuters reports.
Figures given out by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology say that shipments of the iPhone fell to 494,000 in February compared to 1.27 million in February 2019.
Apple was not immediately available for comment on the figures when contacted by Business Insider.
Apple is far from the only smartphone maker whose Chinese sales have suffered during the coronavirus outbreak. The government figures showed an overall drop in the smartphone market of 54.7% from February last year - from 14 million to 6.34 million. For Android brand devices, shipments fell from 12.72 million to 5.85 million.
Apple warned last month that the novel coronavirus outbreak would hurt revenue, as factory closures in China slowed iPhone production and Apple stores were forced to close, an d said it wouldn't meet its guidance for the March quarter.
"These stats out of China confirm the bad news that Apple foreshadowed when they took guidance off the table last month for the March quarter," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told Business Insider.
"These are doomsday type of numbers which is not surprising given the unprecedented coronavirus which hit China front and center in March. The Street is focused on how quickly the supply chain and demand in China will rebound, although these iPhone units numbers show the damage done in China over the last six weeks," he added.
