This week, two major suppliers of components for the iPhone and other Apple products released quarterly financial reports. By themselves, they are not of great interest to a wide audience, however, based on the data presented, certain conclusions can be drawn regarding the supply of Apple smartphones themselves.
Foxconn not only supplies some components for the iPhone and other Apple products, but also assembles them. And for the first quarter of 2019, the Chinese manufacturer received $637 million, which is 17,7% less than revenue for the same period in 2018.
Note that Foxconn is Apple's largest manufacturing partner. For example, most iPhones are produced and packaged at Foxconn factories, and then shipped to consumers from there. Therefore, Foxconn can probably be considered the most striking indicator of demand for Apple products. And when the financial performance of such a company drops by almost 20%, this indicates that Apple is not going so smoothly with iPhone deliveries. Note that after the publication of poor financial results, Foxconn shares today fell in price by 2%.
Japan Display, one of the main suppliers of displays for Apple devices, also faced a decrease in income. This company's revenue for the first quarter of 2019 decreased by 17,2% year over year. The Japanese manufacturer notes an increase in demand for OLED panels, while it itself so far produces only LCD panels. So the financial difficulties here are associated not so much with a decrease in demand for the iPhone, but with a lag in OLED displays.
Note, however, that last month information appeared that Japan Display had received a contract to supply its products for the Apple Watch. It's also worth noting that Japan Display is working on creating its own OLED panels, but it will clearly have a hard time competing with Samsung for a contract to supply OLED displays for the iPhone. Samsung has developed OLED technology for a long time and has extensive experience in this area.
For Apple itself, the decline in iPhone shipments is offset by growth in sales of iPad tablets and Mac computers. In addition, Apple strives to become a βservices-basedβ company. That is, Apple is receiving more and more profit from its services, including music and television. We also note that global smartphone shipments as a whole declined by 4% last year. Only Huawei was able to increase sales, while all other major manufacturers noted a decrease in demand.
Source: 3dnews.ru