Foxconn is the main iPhone supplier for Apple and noticed a December sales go down by more than 8 percent in 2018 as the Taiwan’s tech sector contracted year on year for the first time in ten months. Some of the key iPhone suppliers in Taiwan are now facing the effects of Apple’s struggle to stir the demand for its newest products. The revenues of December were recorded by 19 Taiwanese tech companies tracked by the Nikkei Asian Review and saw a drop of 1.33 Percent on the year to $1.22 trillion New Taiwanese dollars.
It had ended a consistent year on year rise since February, 2018. Taking away the impact of the Chinese New Year, this is the first year on year decline since November 2016. The downfall started a day after Apple had shocked the investors on January 2, 2019 with a warning that the revenues of the final three months of 2018 would drop. Apple’s shares have shed more than 30 percent of their value since it had peaked in October 2018. The company was then valued at more than $1 trillion.
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are both key display suppliers to iPhones and all of them have warned of poor trading during the October-December quarter. On the other hand Apple has asked its suppliers to produce an average 10 percent less new iPhones for the January – March period and has signaled that the sales of the new products will continue to face a slowdown in the new year.
Foxconn has explained that the fall in revenues in 2018 was mainly due to the relatively large scale decline in the consumer electronics segment. The iPhone assembling business is main business of the company. Moreover, the other iPhone component suppliers felt the sting of the low iPhone sales in December 2018. Growing competition from other brands can be said as the reason for the low sales figures.
Photo Credits: Slash Gear
