“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.”
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MacDailyNews Take: High-end Chinese smartphones. The Misnomer of the Week, so far!