Key iPhone Supplier Warns Smartphone Demand Will Continue to Fall
- Murata CEO: Chinese phone makers are ‘not felling well’
- Market likely to shrink by 160 million units this year
This article is for subscribers only.
Murata Manufacturing Co. expects this year’s drop in smartphone sales to keep going well into 2023, led by a sharp downturn in China.
The company’s outlook has dimmed dramatically from a quarter ago, when it looked forward to a bounceback in Chinese demand after the end of Covid-19 lockdowns in major cities. Consumers in the world’s biggest smartphone market haven’t responded with a spending spree and Murata sees little prospect for a rally over the next year, President Norio Nakajima told Bloomberg News in an interview.