The number of smartphones shipped into Kenya is expected to drop by more than 10 percent in the first half of 2020 and prices to increase due to supply constraints, reversing the growth seen in the last quarter of 2019 when it grew by a fifth.
The global outbreak of coronavirus has affected global supply lines and China’s manufacturing hubs.
Research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) is forecasting a slowdown for the East Africa smartphone market in the first half with shipments forecast to decline 12 percent quarter-on-quarter in first three months and by a further three percent in quarter two.
"In the second quarter of 2020, the market will continue to decline due to supply chain disruptions in China. The prices of the available smartphones will also rise slightly, driven by the shortage in supply,” said Dr Ramazan Yavuz, a senior research manager at IDC.
“At this early stage of the crisis, it's important to be circumspect and IDC's probabilistic scenario has the virus being contained by quarter three, at which point production should fully resume."
IDC expects to see a recovery in the third and fourth quarters in East Africa.
Top retailers have warned that prices of consumer goods, phones, TVs, and fridges, will rise from March 2020.
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