Mobile firms stare at gloomy festive season amid Covid-led disruption

With the Covid-19-triggered economic disruption resulting in mass layoffs, salary cuts, and GDP contraction, smartphone manufacturers are staring at a subdued festive season this year.
 

According to industry sources, though leading brands like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Oppo managed to absorb the initial shock and resumed their local production back to 60 per cent, they would likely suffer a 20-25 per cent loss of sales in the October-December quarter.
 

The current quarter (July-September) is traditionally the largest in terms of volume shipment as all leading players fill up their inventory in anticipation of bumper sales in festive weeks. Since