“Smartphone and tablet panel maker Japan Display Inc slashed its full-year earnings forecast on Wednesday to a 10 billion yen ($93 million) net loss, citing lower-than-expected sales of high-end panels to Chinese handset makers,” Sophie Knight and Reiji Murai report for Reuters.
“Japan Display, which had previously estimated it would post a net profit of 26.8 billion yen, said Chinese smartphone makers had not adopted full high-definition displays as rapidly as it had expected, while delayed shipments to a large customer had depressed sales in the six months to Sept. 31,” Knight and Murai report. “The forecast cut is the latest bad news for Japan Display, whose share price scraped a new all-time low on Wednesday before the announcement. An earlier profit warning and disappointing results both last year and for the first quarter have cast doubts over the viability of its high-end panel business.”
“Japan Display, the result of a merger between the display units of Sony Corp, Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd, troubled investors by its reliance on a tablet market so sluggish that analysts say even Apple may struggle to turn it around if it announces new iPads as rumoured on Thursday.,” Knight and Murai report. “Japan Display’s share price ended flat on Wednesday at 439 yen after hitting a low of 431 yen, a lifetime low and 52.1 percent below the offering price of 900 yen at its initial public offering in March.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: High-end Chinese smartphones. The Misnomer of the Week, so far!
“High-end Chinese smartphones.” That would be an oxymoron.
… but hardly true.
Sure, the “high-end” gizmo in central China or deepest-darkest Africa may not compete with last year’s trailing edge in NYC, but it still compares well with other such gizmos in the same area. “High-end Chinese” means “the high-end product in the Chinese market”. So … NOT an oxymoron.
This development seems to reflect continuing effects of Apple’s growing dominance in the areas of smartphones, tablets, computers, supply chain management, ecosystem and vertical integration.
It seems to be hard times for Apple’s direct competitors, as many of us predicted. Tim Cook’s management continues to seem to be working and outperforming competitor’s strategic plans.
It may presage continued growth for Apple and continued hard times for many competitors.
Certainly there are very capable smartphones made by companies other than Apple. However, no other company has managed to become an aspirational brand like Apple. Having a Samsung doesn’t have the same prestige because they also sell cheap phones. If there was ever a reason for Apple to never dip into the lower end of the market, this is it.
The day of Sept. 31 always has very depressed sales anyway.
LOL!
on the other hand, a slight dip in iPad sales, which the “major customer” comment might mean, is big trouble for suppliers. Sort of like the Valsic pickle story:
http://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know
I for one, love my Apple products, I have an iPad 1 that I have no intension of replacing- after 4 1/2 years it still does really well. Next month it will pass the longest I’ve used a computing device ever.(however, the device it will replace was a “corporate Dell”- that thing gave me more trouble and our I.T. guy burned it with a blow torch in a trash can when we finally replaced it. I was worried about the toxic fumes. ) This is Apple’s rub: the old iPad is too good to replace.
I would’ve urinated over its ashes.
Sony, I’m a dissapoint. If only they would abandoned/denounce android I’m sure they’d do fine.
Maybe have a go with the remnants of WebOS or something but definitely avoid those poisonous and unscrupulous douchebags at GOOG at all costs.