As expected, the launch of Apple’s new iPhone is predicted to have a major impact on the personal electronics market. As of right now, it’s expected to make LTE smartphones look bulky and subpar while taking IT dollars away from PC manufacturers such as Dell and HP. According to Mark Moskowitz of J.P. Morgan, the entire technology “food chain” will have winners and losers as a result of Apple’s next-generation iPhone.
Moskowitz believes some of the biggest losers that will emerge due to the launch of the new iPhone will be competing smartphone makers who have existing 4G LTE handsets on the market. The latest Apple smartphone is also said to hurt Windows-based PC manufacturers as well as the next-generation iPhone is said to “sustain the land grab of smartphones making IT dollars from PCs, dampening PC-related growth prospects at Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and other PC makers.” Furthermore, the debut of turn-by-turn navigation in Apple’s new Maps application for iOS 6 is forecast to have a negative effect on existing GPS providers such as TeleNav, Telecommunication Systems, and Garmin.
On the other hand, the new iPhone is projected to mark one of the few secular growth stories for the semiconductor industry in the second half of 2012. With the anticipation of strong demand for the next-generation iPhone, companies such as Fairchild Semiconductor, Qualcomm, and Avago, all of which supply components to Apple, are expected to see benefits. LG Display which supplies in-cell touchscreen panels; Samsung electronics, which builds Apple’s custom processors; and LG Innotek, which is believed to be supplying camera modules are all expected to see benefits. When it comes to wireless carriers, the next-gen iPhone is expected to have a negative effect on their margins but in the longer term, it will help accelerate the upgrade cycle to 4G LTE, particularly in the U.S. which is currently dominated by slower 3G speeds.
Apple is expected to officially unveil its new iPhone later today at a media event scheduled at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00pm Eastern. We’ll have to wait and see what impact the next-gen iPhone has upon its release.
Source: CNET
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