Companies may have been hit hardest in February at the peak of the coronavirus crisis for countries that rely heavily on manufacturing: Apple was forced to temporarily close its China factories that month, and though Samsung relocated its factories to India and Vietnam, its reliance on China for supplying components caused production problems, as well. But new COVID-19 cases in China have been in decline since then, and Apple was able to reopen its factories by the end of the month, albeit not at full capacity.
However, there may be a bright spot: Even though phone shipments are down worldwide, time spent on mobile devices has increased as people spend more time at home using digital devices. Still, given that the global economy is expected to be recovering well into 2021, a complete rebound for the industry likely won’t come until later.