Apple lost over $60 billion in two days over the reports of weak smartphone demand in 2018, according to Financial Times.
The iPhone maker’s shares fell nearly 7% on Thursday and Friday after Taiwan Semiconductor, company’s biggest supplier, said in Q1 2018 earnings report that the Q2 revenues would be hit by “weak demand from the mobile sector”.
Apple wasn’t the sole affectee of the reports as they also caused the market values of several global chip manufacturers, including Qualcomm, Qorvo, Analogue Devices and Dialog Semiconductor to decline.
The global smartphone sales fell in Q4 of the last year for the first time since 2004.
Apple’s woes were compounded when “manufacturing issues” hit its efforts to acquire LG Display’s OLED screens for future iPhone devices.
The iPhone maker’s shares fell nearly 7% after Taiwan Semiconductor said that Q2 revenues would be hit by “weak demand from the mobile sector”
People within the Cupertino-based company are questioning LG’s ability to succeed as Samsung’s replacement for OLED display, according to Wall Street Journal.
Apple currently uses the LCD panels manufactured by LG in the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus while the screen of Apple Watch is also made by the same company.
The OLED displays used in iPhone X are supplied by Samsung.
Rumours are also rife that Apple is secretly designing and manufacturing its own device screens, somewhere near its headquarters in California.
It is believed that company’s all iPhones coming next year will have OLED displays.
According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, two of three iPhones expected to be launched later in 2018 would also feature OLED displays.
One of them is a 6.5-inch iPhone while the other is a 5.8-inch phone.
The third phone Apple is rumoured to unleash this year is a 6.1-inch LCD iPhone, which will be company’s first-ever device to offer dual-SIM dual standby (DSDS) functionality.
Kuo recently predicted that Apple’s supply chain would see strong growth in Q4 of 2018 and Q1 of 2019 and 6.1-inch iPhone will “significantly boost shipment momentum.”
He predicted that 6.1-inch iPhone would account for 65 to 75 percent of total iPhone shipments from Q3 of 2018 to Q3 2019.
