Samsung Revealed That Display Panel Demand Will Weaken IPhone X Another Bad News
Apr 27, 2018
Samsung Electronics announced a record first-quarter profit on Thursday, but warned the company's display panel performance will slow in the second quarter. This may be bad news for Apple's iPhone X.
Samsung said in a statement: “As the increasingly fierce competition in the high-end market, the weakness of the display panel business and the declining profitability of the mobile business, it will bring challenges to the overall company's overall profit growth.”
In addition to Samsung’s own display panel for Samsung’s own mobile phone, the iPhone X is also a major customer.
Samsung said in its first-quarter financial report that some of its display panel profits "are affected by the slowdown in demand for flexible OLED panels." For the second quarter, the company expects the same weakness to continue and said it will cut costs and increase efficiency.
Before Samsung made this prediction, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.), one of the major suppliers of iPhone, warned that sales growth of smartphone chips will slow down. TSMC said that its second-quarter revenue forecast ranged from US$7.8 billion to US$7.9 billion, which is lower than Wall Street’s estimated US$8.8 billion. The company attributed the reason to the "weak demand" of the mobile industry.
Another key Apple supplier also lowered its expected sales in the second quarter significantly. Austria-based AMS provides optical sensors for the iPhone X. The company said it expects sales in the second quarter to be between $220 million and $250 million, a decrease of nearly 50% from the first quarter.
Wall Street blames the poor iPhone X demand for the weak performance of TSMC and AMS. An analyst predicts that Apple may shut down its iPhone X production line this year.
