Worldwide smartphone sales to end-users totaled 366 million units in the third quarter of 2020, down 5.7% from the third quarter of 2019, according to Gartner. Overall global mobile phone sales to end users totaled 401 million units, a decline of 8.7% year-over-year. From the report: After two consecutive quarters of a decline of 20%, quarterly smartphone sales have started to show signs of recovery sequentially. However, smartphone sales continued to remain weaker compared to the same time period in in 2019, even with vendors introducing multiple 5G smartphones and governments relaxing shelter-in-place instructions in some geographies. “Consumers are limiting their discretionary spend even as some lockdown conditions have started to improve,” said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner. “Global smartphone sales experienced moderate growth from the second quarter of 2020 to the third quarter. This was due to pent-up demand from previous quarters.”

Economic uncertainties and continued fear of the next wave of the pandemic continue to put pressure on nonessential spending through the end of 2020. The delay in 5G network upgrades has also limited the opportunity for smartphone vendors. Among the top five smartphone manufacturers, Samsung held the No. 1 position with 22% market share. Xiaomi moved ahead of Apple into the No. 3 position for the first time ever with sales of 44.4 million units compared to Apple’s sales of 40.5 million units in the third quarter of 2020.

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Source: Slashdot – Global Smartphone Sales Declined 5.7% in Third Quarter of 2020

Governments across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are moving to impose more taxes on digital companies, stirring unease among multinational internet businesses that have boomed amid the coronavirus pandemic. From a report: From Thailand to Indonesia, new levies have kicked in or are being introduced. They threaten to chip away at the earnings of technology companies that are reaping benefits from the rise of digitalization among the region’s 650 million people. The measures are part of global moves by governments to try to bring more of the borderless digital economy into the tax net, responding to scrutiny of whether often footloose tech companies are paying appropriate dues on their earnings. Tech companies have already been the target of digital service tax nets that have progressively tightened in several European countries. Authorities in France this week started sending payment requests to U.S. technology groups for a new digital services tax, the Financial Times reported.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is trying to address the issue at a multilateral level with efforts to reform international taxation rules, governing how multinational businesses pay taxes in the countries where their consumers or users are. Tax experts say corporate income tax liability is normally assessed where a company has its physical presence but not in overseas markets. That has led to a perception of an uneven playing field, with local providers of digital services being taxed by their governments while foreign competitors escape the net. While the OECD works to hammer out an international digital taxation framework through negotiations with over 130 countries, several in Asia have moved ahead to implement their own rules.

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Source: Slashdot – From Thailand To Indonesia, Taxes Tighten for Digital Businesses