BEIJING, Feb.27 (Xinhua) -- A number of smartphone manufacturers have unveiled new 5G cellphones in China recently, which is expected to help the country's mobile phone shipments improve against the impact of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic.
This week has seen intensive releases of 5G phones, including Huawei's foldable Mate Xs and its niche brand Honor's V30 Pro, Realme's X50 Pro, and iQOO's flagship 5G cellphone.
Another batch of 5G mobile phones will be soon unveiled in March. It is learnt that OPPO will release the 5G Find X2 series smartphones on March 6, and Huawei will release the P40 series on March 26.
"Due to the epidemic outbreak, smartphone manufacturers missed the usual hot-selling season, which is the Spring Festival holiday, and encountered the problem of overstocking," said Sun Yanbiao, noting that under the backdrop, the manufacturers choose to use new products to attract the customers and drive the sales of old ones.
He believed that such a close release of 5G phones by multiple brands is to maintain the continuous development of the sales system and supply chain system.
The epidemic outbreak draws a prospect less desirable for China's mobile phone shipments in the first quarter of 2020. The figure has dropped 38.9 percent to 20.81 million units in January, according to a report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).
At present, the price of 5G terminals is going down, and 5G mobile phones can be bought for two or three thousand yuan, which is very appealing to consumers. Data released on February 21 by China's leading smart retailer Suning show that the demand has increased significantly for white-collar workers to replace old mobile phones with new ones in first-tier and second-tier cities. Among them, nearly 70 percent choose to buy 5G cellphones.
Investment bank China International Capital Corporation (CICC) believes that after a sharp decline estimated around 35 percent in the first quarter of 2020, China's mobile phone market shipments are expected to go higher quarter by quarter, driven by 5G cellphone replacement. (Edited by Li Wenxin, liwenxin@xinhua.org)
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