For Sony, iPhone sales will not grow this year. Sony, the maker of all iPhone photo sensors, said it does not expect iPhone sales to grow this year, despite the upcoming arrival of the iPhone 15 range. The forecast marks a change from its earlier view that the market of smartphones would recover in the second half of this year.
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The Tokyo giant said demand for smartphones is slowing in China and worsening in the US, confirming Apple’s warning not to expect growth from the iPhone 15 launch.
Recall that even Apple recently declared that iPhone sales will not grow. The Cupertino-based multinational reported a 1% drop in year-over-year revenue last week on a tough smartphone market and warned it does not expect changes this quarter when the iPhone 15 lineup launches.
Looking ahead, Luca Maestri said Apple expects the current quarter to be similar to the previous quarter, essentially flat:
We expect our revenue performance in the September quarter year-over-year to be similar to the June quarter, provided the macroeconomic outlook does not worsen than we are projecting today for the current quarter
In providing its forecast, Sony had previously said it expects a leap in the smartphone market in the second half of this year, which is when the iPhone 15 goes on sale. However, Bloomberg reports that the company has changed its mind:
The recovery of the smartphone market in China is slower than we expected, and conditions in the US market are deteriorating.
We expected the smartphone market to start recovering from the second half of this fiscal year, but now we don’t expect that to happen until at least next year.
It has also been reported that Sony has experienced sensor performance issues for this year’s iPhone lineup, possibly due to greater challenges in manufacturing the 48MP sensor, which is expected to arrive in the base and Plus models.
Sony has not commented on the latest news, but an analyst said Sony’s sensors division was unable to generate profit this year, most likely due to this issue.
Things could get even tougher next year, when Sony is likely to introduce a more advanced sensor to double the iPhone 16’s low-light shooting capabilities.
Recall that Apple will present iPhone 15, together with the new Apple Watch on September 12, via a pre-registered event.
