Published in Mobiles

Older iPhones will lose dongles

by on17 September 2018


Apple move will hurt audio chip supplier Cirrus Logic.

Apple's older iPhones will no longer include lightning-to-headphone jack adapters and Barclays has warned that this would hurt audio chip supplier Cirrus Logic.

Comparing the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 pages from last week to today, Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis wrote in a note he had found that Apple “will remove the dongle from its entire suite of phones. While Cirrus did admit the dongle was out in current generations, it's an additional negative that they are also removing the dongle from the older products".

He contends that it's possible Cirrus "gained an additional amp" in the Series 4 Apple Watch given that the watch's crown now supports haptic feedback. "The amp represents an additional $0.50 cents of content but units are 10-15 million (netting ~$6 million), making the impact relatively small in comparison to the dongle loss", he wrote.

Shares of Cirrus, which makes analog chips used in Apple devices, fell 3.8 percent to $39.46. In fiscal 2018, Apple accounted for about 81 percent of Cirrus total sales.

It has been a bad year for Cirrus which should be regretting being so dependant on Apple. In February it saw its quarterly revenue and profit below estimates due to weakness in smartphone sales. It did not blame Apple, but  lower average selling price of components at a key Android phone manufacturer.

 

Last modified on 17 September 2018
Rate this item
(0 votes)

Read more about: