FOTO DE ARCHIVO: Personas esperando para ser examinadas de COVID-19 en Shah Alam, Malasia, el 7 de enero de 2021. REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng

Market research firm TrendForce announced that it had lowered its annual smartphone production forecast by 10 million units to 1.35 billion units in response to the rising Covid-19 infections in India and Vietnam recently. Since the epidemic in Southeast Asia is still severe, and there is no sign of relief shortly, it may affect the subsequent demand performance in the region. The global smartphone output will face another downward revision in the second half of the year.

TrendForce believes that the uncertainty of the development of the epidemic is still the biggest threat. The epidemic is still heating up in other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. It will impact demand, which will continue to add variables to the smartphone production performance in the second half of 2021. (Reuters)