Foxconn's first quarter sales drop as iPhone demand slows down

Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known under its trading name Foxconn, has reported a big, 19% drop in sales amidst slow demand for the Apple iPhone in the first quarter of the year. Foxconn is an electronics manufacturer most known for making the iPhone, but it is also the company putting together Amazon Kindles, as well as most game consoles.

Hon Hai posted sales of nearly $27 billion for the January-March period, a huge decline from the some $32.98 billion sales in Q4 2012 and the $33.37 billion in Q1 2012.

"A quarterly decline was expected, but not a yearly decline," Ming-chi Kuo, an analyst with KGI Securities said.

Hon Hai has obviously become too dependent on Apple relying on it for 60% to 70% of its revenue stream.

We have been hearing talks about Apple fading out of relevance for years on, but this time we have a trend of Apple stock going down and now these negative signals from Apple’s biggest manufacturer.

Is this the beginning of the end as analysts have long speculated, or just normal seasonal fluctuations that Apple will overcome with its forthcoming 2013 device portfolio, what do you think?

source: Reuters