Smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm is in the eye of a potential economic storm as inflation and fears of a recession pressure consumers to reconsider spending priorities and hold off on that brand new handset.
The business last night trimmed its annual sales forecast and slashed smartphone shipment guidance despite reporting healthy double digit increases in turnover for most recent quarter.
Revenues for Qualcomm's
fiscal Q3 of 2022 ended 26 June [PDF] swelled by 36 percent to $10.94 billion, surpassing analyst projections. Yet the same could not be said of its Q4 sales forecast of between $11 billion and $11.8 billion, lower than consensus of $11.9 billion.
In an earning call to discuss the latest financial results, Cristiano Amon, CEO at the mobile chipmaker said that its forecast was "mindful of the challenging economic environment."
In the same online briefing, chief financial officer Akash Palkhiwala predicted smartphone shipments would drop by roughly 5 percent year-on-year in 2022, dropping from prior estimates of 750 million units to between 650 million two 700 million devices.
"We expect the elevated uncertainty in the global economy and the impact of COVID measures in China will cause customers to act with caution in managing their purchases in the second half of calendar '22," he said.
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