Apple loses over $60 billion in market cap after reports hinting at a slowdown in smartphones sales emerges

Apple lost over $60 billion in market cap in two days after Taiwan Semiconductor, Apple’s biggest supplier said in an earnings update that second-quarter revenues would be hit by ‘ weak demand from the mobile sector ’. [caption id=“attachment_4336077” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Apple shares fell nearly seven percent on 19 April and 20 April over reports of a sharper slowdown in smartphone sales in 2018, Financial Times reported late on 20 April. Not just Apple , the news led to several global chipmakers losing market value, including Analogue Devices, Dialog Semiconductor, Qualcomm, and Qorvo. For the first time since 2009, smartphone sales in China fell in 2017 while global sales fell in the fourth quarter of 2017 for the first time since 2004. In another setback for the iPhone maker, its efforts to get LG Display’s OLED screens for future iPhone production line “have hit manufacturing issues”, the Wall Street Journal reported on 20 April. Apple is reportedly divided on whether LG will be able to succeed as Samsung’s replacement for OLED displays. The Cupertino-based company currently uses Samsung’s OLED displays for iPhone X . The LCD panels which are currently being used in the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are supplied by LG. Apple Watch screen is made by LG Display. There are reports that Apple is designing and producing its own device screens, secretly at a facility near its headquarters in California. It is believed that Apple will switch to OLED displays for all of its iPhone release in 2019.