Apple suppliers faltering on tepid sales of iPhone XS series in Korea

2018.11.14 16:15:20

iPhone XS, XS MaxÀ̹ÌÁö È®´ë

iPhone XS, XS Max

Shares of Apple Inc. subcontractors in South Korea suffered Wednesday amid lackluster response to the new iPhone XS series.

On Wednesday, shares of LG Innotek that supplies camera modules to the global phone maker fell 3.38 percent to close at 100,000 won ($88.19). Apple¡¯s display supplier LG Display shares also ended 2.75 percent lower at 17,650 won. SK Hynix shares finished 2.09 percent down at 70,400 won.

Investors turned away from the Korean tech stocks amid growing concerns that lukewarm reaction to the new iPhone series would affect Apple suppliers. Apple¡¯s latest iPhone XS, XS Max and XR models sold only 170,000 units in Korea in the first week on Nov. 2-7, about 40 percent lower than the sales of its previous models.

Industry insiders used to fret about initial sales of Apple¡¯s new models, which have always been received well by Korean customers in the end. However, the latest XS series that hit the Korean market about a week ago were actually met with tepid response from customers, which is why investors turn skeptical on suppliers of Apple.

The newest iPhone XS series are struggling under tepid sales in Korea amid mounting criticism about their lofty price tags of up to around 2,000,000 won ($1,763.82) for the minimum specification upgrade from previous X series.

By Lee Sang-duk and Lee Ha-yeon

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