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Displays Iphone Cellphones Apple Hardware

Samsung To Cut OLED Production Due To Poor iPhone X Sales 150

Posted by BeauHD from the slice-and-dice dept.
Samsung's panel-making division, Samsung Display, is reportedly reducing OLED panel production at its South Chungcheong plant due to lower than expected iPhone X sales. According to Nikkei Asian Review, Samsung now plans to cover 20 million or fewer iPhone X devices for the quarter ending in March, a large decrease from the expected 45 to 50 million units. CNET reports: Apple sold 77.3 million iPhones in the quarter ending in January, down by 1 percent on the previous year. The $1,000 price tag on the iPhone X was blamed for the volume shortfall -- but also contributed to the company making record-breaking profits. Samsung did not respond to CNET's request for comment.
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Samsung To Cut OLED Production Due To Poor iPhone X Sales More

Samsung To Cut OLED Production Due To Poor iPhone X Sales

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  • Duh (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It's an over priced phone that serves no useful purpose to the vast majority of people looking to get a new phone.

    • It's an over priced phone that serves no useful purpose to the vast majority of people looking to get a new phone.

      I prefer to get my overpriced phone from Samsung anyway. Assuming the S9 still has an audio jack, of course. Otherwise, elsewhere, or done.

      • I love tangled audio cords. Remind me of my first walkman.

        • I love tangled audio cords. Remind me of my first walkman.

          The audio jacks are useful for lots more than just plugging in headphones. Oh wait, on iphone "you can't do that." I forgot, it is the phone of "no." Carry on.

          • That is good that Apple has jettisoned audio jack. For the most part it seems that rooted phones for Apple are becoming less and less of a things making them not very useful as hackable tools.

            It makes it simpler to chose a device that actually has a headphone jack is all. Were you likely to choose an Apple phone anyway??? Really?
            Aside from that, it still seems more likely that 99.9% of people would mostly use a minijack for earbuds or headsets. I know my kids do. These are commoditized devices.... Like Toas

    • Not overpriced or poor sales either (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This phone made record breaking earnings for Apple. In what sense of the word is that "poor". How can a phone be overpriced if it achieves that sales objective? Sure you personally might find a kilobuck too much and this think "overpriced". But that's not what overpriced means. It means a prices that results in a poor outcome. And from apple's point of view the outcome was not poor.

      • Personally, I don't want a thousand dollar phone because how I would feel when I break it. It's not that I would not like the phone and I don't even see it as over priced.

        Why isn't it overpriced? How many things do you hold in your hand and look at 50 times a day? comething that tactile and consuming of your senses, intellect, time and lifestyle is something you should be getting the best possible tool for. It's not a place to economize. You can get a cheaper phone but saving yourself 25 cents a day fo

        • Re:thousand dollar phones (Score:5, Insightful)

          by rogoshen1 ( 2922505 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2018 @07:43PM (#56161027)

          at the end of the day, it's still just a fucking phone.

          • at the end of the day, it's still just a fucking phone.

            This is the same as saying a car is just a car. True. But you spend a lot of time in them and some cars make you feel good about driving them. Ever driven a manual shift sports car down a windy country road? And yet a much cheaper automatic sedan is a much more practical car. And both are cars and both get you to your destination. One just makes you grin like an idiot and is exciting. And what's life without some excitement. Stupid to buy a sedan if you have the money to burn for the sports car. If

            • Fair enough, personal preference at the end of the day -- but personally i don't romanticize a phone the same way I would a car.

              (Besides, has anyone ever in the history of time and/or space gotten laid because they have an iPhone? QED.)

              • Probably high school kids, and a few super nerds that find gold diggers. Other than that you have a valid point.

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by Anonymous Coward
                Or gotten laid in the back of a phone?

              • I'm the same way with cars as I am with cell phones. I like them, appreciate them on a mechanical level. Hell, I even built and raced a little formula car.

                But at the end of the day, it will get scratched. It will get dinged. That runaway shopping cart or braille parallel parker makes your fine, well-maintained sports car look just as shitty as an old Fiesta after a while of regular use. I don't get many smiles on my 15 minute commute, sports car or no sports car. In fact, having just an old Camry and an old

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by Junta ( 36770 )

              Here a car analogy falls short.

              A car is a big experience, enveloping the whole body. There is a whole lot of room for differentiation in the experience in everything from suspension to steering to transmission, to the weight and insulation and materials.

              For a slab of touchscreen, there's only so much it can really do to provide a different experience from the cheaper slab of touchscreen running the same software. While functional differences do exist, so far the major draw is to make people notice the not

            • My phone is generally used as a phone and there are plenty of phones that can get good signal making the iphone kind of a waste. It's also stupid to by a sports car instead of a sedan if you have kids but if you get the larger engine in one of those sedans they can also be fun. If you have the time and know how you can rebuild an old sports car and buy the new sedan.

              I've been wanting to get my hands on a sports car to rebuild my wife wants a muscled out chevelle I was thinking something smaller like a trium

            • But the sports car is a less pleasant driving experience on a congested city street. If most of your driving time is on those and you rarely get the opportunity to drive on a windy country road, you might rationally choose the sedan even if you can afford the sports car, or perhaps choose a luxury sedan.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Xenx ( 2211586 )
            Smartphones are not just a phone. They're a game console, an instant messanger, a web browser, TV(streaming and such), etc.... They're a hand held computer that is capable of placing phone calls.

            • Unfortunately to get the full effect of that you have to jailbreak iphones, I own one and love it. But its jailbroken, not an iphone x though. I like my headphone jack.

          • No, at the end of the day it's a pocket computer.

            • No, at the end of the day it's a pocket computer.

              .... "What's a computer?"

              > for that matter, what's a pocket?

        • Re:thousand dollar phones (Score:4, Funny)

          by starless ( 60879 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2018 @09:09PM (#56161333)

          How many things do you hold in your hand and look at 50 times a day? something that tactile and consuming of your senses, intellect, time and lifestyle is something you should be getting the best possible tool for. It

          Hmmm... yes.., well... perhaps I'd better not admit to that in public...

        • Personally, I don't want a thousand dollar phone because how I would feel when I break it.

          That's why you get AppleCare though. A few free screen replacements and leniency with hardware defects for other things. Being that expensive you could probably also claim outright theft or loss on a homeowners policy.

          And if you're really super sure you'll break it, just get a really strong case. :-)

          So far I'm not using a case myself, except when traveling where lots more random stuff can happen.

          As you said, a phone

          • That's why you get AppleCare though.

            Then it's a $1400 phone that you have to physically destroy within 4 years or you wasted $400.

            • Then it's a $1400 phone that you have to physically destroy within 4 years or you wasted $400.

              AppleCare for the iPhoneX is only $249 (amusingly AppleCare for the iMac Pro, that costs at least $5k is $169).

              But even if you never use it, that cost hardly matters. Like all insurance it provides benefit to a small subset but that benefit is pretty large; and if you never use it the cost of AppleCare averaged out over how long you own and use the phone is really small.

              Not to mention if for some reason you are th

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Dog-Cow ( 21281 )

                Insurance is priced based on expected payout, and not the value of the item insured. While there is definitely a correlation between the two, an iMac spends its time immobile, usually on a desk. The phone is typically used anywhere but a desk.

            • That's why you get AppleCare though.

              Then it's a $1400 phone that you have to physically destroy within 4 years or you wasted $400.

              Uh, there's a damn good chance that support for that "ancient" phone will be destroyed within 4 years, so you'll be replacing it anyway...

        • I get where you're coming from: not long ago, anything "modest" was crap, so high-end devices were very much worth the cost. But that has changed. There are tons of $200~300 phones with solid specs and good design, so you don't need to spend a small fortune to get a good user experience anymore.

        • I say it's over priced if I can get a substitute for a lower price.

          In this case I can.

          It's over priced.

        • Personally, I don't want a thousand dollar phone

          Compared to the iPhone 8+ or the latest Samsung, is the X really expensive? A bit more, yes, but not that much. I considered purchasing the X, and would have given the money would it be worth it. But I didn't think it is. Not impressed by Oled, didn't like its width, nor the "notch" ; didn't care at all about the moving smilies, and prefer fingerprints to face recognition...

        • Don't you get the accident replacement plan?

      • "nobody goes to that club anymore, it's too crowded."

        http://www.patentlyapple.com/p... [patentlyapple.com]

        During Tim Cook's summary for the holiday quarter he noted: "... a key driver was iPhone which generated it's highest revenue ever. iPhone X was the best selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter according to Canalys and it has been our best selling phone every week since it launched."

        more importantly perhaps, it reversed the sagging iphone trend in china. ".. Kantar reported that iPhone X sales in Urban Chi

        • Just about everybody who wanted one has now bought one.

          And they are 'record breaking profit' because of the high markup.

          What does that say about the people who bought them? That they paid a lot extra for what they got.

          • Just about everybody who wanted one has now bought one.

            And they are 'record breaking profit' because of the high markup.

            What does that say about the people who bought them? That they paid a lot extra for what they got.

            You are aware that iPhone sales are up while overall smartphone sales are down? Well, now you no longer have the excuse that you don't.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by VMaN ( 164134 )

              Can't find any numbers fresher than 3Q17, but Gartner seems to disagree with you:

              "Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 383 million units in the third quarter of 2017, a 3 percent increase over the same period in 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. All of the top five smartphone vendors achieved double-digit growth apart from Apple, which achieved a 5.7 percent increase."

              https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3833964

              What is the source for your claim?

              • Can't find any numbers fresher than 3Q17,

                You really couldn't find numbers for 4Q17 even though they were all over the web, or did you choose to ignore them because you don't like what they say?

        • Welcome to the world of spin. That China thing is in there because Samsung was hoping other manufacturers would pick up the slack from the lackluster iPhone X sales, but that didn't materialize. For the record, Apple cut phone sales projections from 50 million units to 30 million units, and based on what we're hearing from Samsung, 20 million units seems more likely.

      • This phone made record breaking earnings for Apple.

        Apple revenue is down something like $18billion from last year. Their stock fell into a hole this afternoon and despite what Tim Cook says, iPhone is under-performing's Apple's own projections, and the company as a whole is under-performing their guidance.

        All this despite the fat, wet tax break they were given. Supply issues like the one pointed out in this story are a good way to look behind the rosy economic numbers that every CEO lays out. Because in

        • > Their stock fell into a hole this afternoon

          You must be pretty small if you think 0.34% is a "hole". It's down 60 cents in a moving five-day that's up $10.

          You should invest all your money in the stock market.

        • Apple revenue is down something like $18billion from last year.

          What the hell are you smoking? Apple quarterly earnings [apple.com]reported on Feb 1. that revenue ending Dec 31, 2017 was up $10B from previous year, and increase of 13%. How do confuse up $10B with down $18B? The iPhone alone was up $7B.

          The rest of your statement is at best, fake news.

          • You guys are correct and I'm wrong. I was going on a misremembered article from Feb 1. Apple barely underperformed their guidance and came in $5billion short of Wall Street expectations, which is completely different.

            I apologize to one and all and especially Tim Cook.

            I stand by the statement that their earnings increase is mainly a result of their sweet tax cut and also the statement that the iPhone sales number are much lower than expected.

            • I stand by the statement that their earnings increase is mainly a result of their sweet tax cut and also the statement that the iPhone sales number are much lower than expected.

              The bulk of the tax cut allows Apple to move their cash from overseas accounts into the US with fewer tax penalties. This will save Apple approximately $47B however none of that can be credited towards earnings. It is counted towards their cash assets.

              • This will save Apple approximately $47B however none of that can be credited towards earnings. It is counted towards their cash assets.

                So unremitted foreign earnings are not counted as earnings? Are you sure?

                • No they come in as a loss. They are already counted as earnings. When they repatriate them they pay a tax and book a loss. The tax law actually lets you spread the loss over several years too. So expect apple (net) earning to go way down even though they are making a killing on tax savings. Go figure. The Wall street journal had a piece on how confusing it's going to get trying to figure our price to earnings ratios for the next few years of these highly variable earnings modifications.

                  • It's a great time to be a tax lawyer, I guess.

                    • It's basic accounting. Earnings and revenue definitions are strict. In this case, Apple has the money already as cash; thus it is not earnings. Now if Apple had purchased and sold anything at a profit with the money, that's considered earnings.
                • They were already counted as earnings especially since they've been accumulating over a decade. Apple already had the money before this quarter; it's just parked overseas thus it's not new earnings for the quarter, year. To move the money to the US before this year would have accrued a large loss in tax. They still accrue a smaller loss but it will not be the hefty tax that they would have had. Taxes would affect net income; they don't change the numbers reported as earnings or revenue.
    • Even if I were looking to replace my current phone, I'm generally a little leery about getting the first generation of any new Apple products these days. They've lost a bit of their typical polish over the years and typically don't get all of the kinks or bugs worked out until the second or third generation.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 )

      Angreed.

      I'd love a phone with edge to edge display, except for the bottom, I tested one, impossible to one handed type.

      Ideally, I'd have a 5-5.25 inch phone, half in lower bezel, and a centered keyboard that isn't edge to edge.

      Not sexy in the store though I guess.

    • I expect the biggest hit was Apple releasing the iPhone 8 at the same time. With the Same CPU, and wireless charging. The duel release of the 8 and X just canablized the X sales.

  • Nope. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20, 2018 @07:17PM (#56160851)

    Samsung cut production because they couldn't get contracts from Chinese vendors.

    http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2018/02/apples-iphone-x-is-the-instant-scapegoat-for-samsungs-failure-to-win-oled-orders-from-chinese-vendors.html

    • Not to mention that the volume "shortfall" wasn't caused by poor sales or high prices. It was cause by the previous financial year's quarter being one week longer than this year's quarter. The weekly average actually increased.

      And there will be no corrections, clarifications, or retractions because the tech press is completely beyond accountability.

  • iPhone X best selling smartphone in the world (Score:5, Informative)

    by TimHunter ( 174406 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2018 @07:25PM (#56160891)

    "iPhone X was the best selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter"

    http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2018/02/apples-iphone-x-is-the-instant-scapegoat-for-samsungs-failure-to-win-oled-orders-from-chinese-vendors.html [patentlyapple.com]

    • "iPhone X was the best selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter"

      "Being the best is just not good enough for Apple!"

      Maybe the market analyst folks expected the sales of the iPhone X to be way higher than reported . . . ?

      Maybe all the stories about the iPhone X being a flop are fake news, planted by Russian Hackers . . . ?"

      Maybe lower than expected sales of the iPhone X indicated that the economy is about to take a fall . . . ? Folks are saving up money for after "The Big One" strikes.

      • Two other possibilities

        Maybe all the negative stories about Apple are just clickbait, because Android people love to see bad news about Apple, and Apple people read all the bad news to get upset about it.

        Maybe there's a concerted effort to drive down Apple stock to allow (a) speculators; (b) Apple itself; to buy at the reduced price.

      • Re:iPhone X best selling smartphone in the world (Score:4, Interesting)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2018 @09:28PM (#56161431) Homepage Journal

        Maybe the market analyst folks expected the sales of the iPhone X to be way higher than reported . . . ?

        As long as Apple doesn't break down sales by product, we'll never know what the sales numbers actually are.

        That's what happens when you don't give investors the information they need: They make things up. And different groups make up numbers in different ways to suit their own interests. And the company's stock suffers. Apple used to provide a lot more data. Then at some point in 2005 or so, their product categories got a lot bigger to the point of being almost meaningless. They really should go back to that level of detail.

        • I think you’re misremembering a bit. Apple had only two product lines in 2005: Mac and iPod, and they were just as tight-lipped with details back then. Analysts would beg for Mac numbers to be broken out in more detail, and the only reason they eventually gave up on those requests was because the Mac stopped mattering as much to Apple’s bottom line.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            Up until 2005—as in not including 2005. Look at a report from Q4 2004. They had sales figures for iMac, iBook, PowerBook, and Power Mac individually, plus iPod. They didn't break down individual models of PowerBook or iBook, because in each line, they basically only had the one model (just in different configurations). They should have broken down iPod vs. iPod Mini sales, but didn't. But still, that's a *lot* more detail than "Desktops" and "Laptops". In 2005, the product categories changed to

    • actual story (Score:5, Informative)

      by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2018 @08:31PM (#56161213)

      A story out of Japan on Friday stated that "Other smartphone makers, who Samsung had hoped would incorporate OLED panels, have been slow to make the transition due to their expense and are sticking to liquid crystal displays."" Apparently that reality doesn't sell stories, so the Nikkei Asian Review decided to just throw in Apple as being Samsung's problem to make the story a mover.

      Smartphone sales fell in China overall in Q4 and yet Apple was able to buck the trend with the iPhone X being the number one smartphone around the world. In fact Kantar reported that iPhone X sales in Urban China were staggering.

      During Tim Cook's summary for the holiday quarter he noted: "Our growth was broad based and a key driver was iPhone which generated it's highest revenue ever. iPhone X was the best selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter according to Canalys and it has been our best selling phone every week since it launched."

      In late January Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple to end Samsung's exclusive OLED contract and Shift to a new L-Shaped Battery with Increased Capacity." In that report we also noted that China's BOE and Sharp were vying for Apple's OLED business.

      Yet despite Samsung overestimating OLED display demand, the Nikkei Asian Review's report adds: "To make matters worse, Chinese OLED panel makers are expanding production capacity, heating up the price competition even more."

    • And? What does best selling have to do with expectations? Tells us the best selling electric car in America and that doesn't mean it isn't falling wildly short of getting them into the hands of consumers.

      The December quarter is especially interesting. Make a company that launched a flagship phone in Nov or Dec. I can make plenty that are rumoured to launch in 2Q this year.

  • It's a good thing people are pushing ahead with OLED displays, even if my current phone, an LG V20, has an IPS display not an OLED.

    In fact personally I'd be happy with a 4.3" 800p display like the one in an S2 and better battery life. Even the 1080p 5.1" one on the S5 seems like overkill.

    I can see it depends what you're doing with the phone but for using it as a phone or watching video on a treadmill how many pixels do you need? In fact these days I only ever watch video on a old 10" tablet, not a phone.

    Jo

  • Don't OLED screens burn in? Because THAT would be the factor that I would think would cut demand. Does this one that goes in the iPhone not burn in? I don't care about Apple products enough to sift through the fanboy BS online and find out.

    • I've got a Moto X from 2014 with a OLED display. No burn-in at all.

    • Does this one that goes in the iPhone not burn in?

      On my iPhone X I have noticed zero burn-in (it has bothered me a lot with past monitors so I would noticed if there were any).

      Some people have reported very light burn-in that goes away quickly... Apple made a number of changes to the screen and is usually pretty good with things like screen-management hardware.

    • They burn out rather than in, AIUI, but yes. However, I’ve had an OLED screen for almost two and a half years, and frankly it’s not been a big deal for me. Never noticed it.

    • yes, oled burns in. can't be reversed and once its burned, its burned.

      I build little arduino thingies that use the common 128x64 mono oled displays. I've had a clock/calendar on one of them for about 2 years now and while its contantly on (cycles from clock to 'cal' calendar) I can see areas that are burned from the 2 yrs use.

      I can't see paying a lot for oled. $1k for a phone? NEVER in my life will I pay that, with my own money. even half of that is absurd for a phone, imo. even worse when you realize

    • Been using an OLED equipped smartphone for four years and have in the last few weeks begun to notice what may be slight and I mean extremely slight ghosting in the status bar area while looking at certain photos, under certain conditions and I mean I really have to work at actually seeing this. I've been hearing about the effect forever so I've been looking for it but friends can't detect it. Despite the fud it's a non issue in daily use. Nothing like a bad pixel, not even close. Not obvious is an understat

  • I am rich (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Remember that $1000 application that displayed a jewel and displayed something like "I am rich. I deserve it." but misspelled "deserved" and did little else?

    This phone is like that.

  • Samsung failed to get orders from Chinese companies. Nothing to do with apple.

    http://www.patentlyapple.com/p... [patentlyapple.com]

    • Forbes says there's more to it than that, but cites the same source as the fanboi link above: https://www.forbes.com/sites/e... [forbes.com]

      Foxconn and others know that things slow down after the holidays, but this is more than usual - so they ALL say. Now if Apple normally told the truth or spoke at all about sales transparently, this wouldn't be in dispute. But since they hide the truth, well...who knows? Samsung didn't even cut the 50% that others have had to. Maybe they're hoping to sell those OLEDs yet.

  • Also in what world does selling 77.3 million phones equal commercial failure and lets start closing factories?

  • Fucking pisses me off... Its the likes off Apple that's causing our environment to go to shit. With their 77 million phones...

  • Nikkei not so good (Score:3)

    by MikeMo ( 521697 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2018 @10:40PM (#56161637)
    It would be wise to note that Nikkei Asian News is usually pretty full of sh*t when it comes to Apple’s supply chain. One might even surmise that they try to manipulate the stock.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • So is that reduction relative to the original order, or the quadrupled order reported 2 months ago? https://www.idropnews.com/rumors/samsung-quadruple-apples-oled-supply-likely-iphone-x-plus/58971/ [idropnews.com]

    Or is this just YAD Nikkei iPhone report.

  • Samsung's troubles are of course overinflated in this article, because every iPhone X sale all but guarantees the sale of two replacement screens in the first year of use...

  • One can tell Jony Ive has nobody that can say 'no' anymore. I think that is reflected in unfortunate old Apple derp-proprietary habits (forcing people from ports they like because 0.1mm thinner, ditching genuinely useful stuff like MagSafe because 0.1mm thinner, ditching Home button because screen access but throw notch on top compromising screen access, etc.) coming back so strong these days.

    But margins so high on iPhoneX they make tons-o'-money off the Apple suckerati. Newsflash: Iphone X is an iPhone 8 w

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