Apple Assembler Pegatron is Upbeat About Premium Phone Market in 2018

Pegatron, an assembler of Apple's iPhones, says that it's upbeat on the premium phone market for 2018, despite a 9% drop in global smartphone shipments last quarter.

"We are rather positive about the premium phone segment for all of 2018," said Pegatron chief S.J. Liao, during a press conference. "We will also be benefiting from expanding adoptions of new artificial intelligence and augmented reality features to go into those high-end phones."

Liao said he does not believe that Pegatron will be affected by the slowdown in smartphone sales as it will focus only on high-end smartphones and will not seek to compete with China-based assemblers in the manufacturing of mid-to-low end phones.


Analysts believe that Apple plans to release three smartphones this year, a 5.8-inch OLED model, a 6.1-inch LCD model, and 6.5-inch model. Market watchers believe Pegatron will secure an increased number of orders from Apple this year and could be the main supplier for the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone.

"We are optimistic that the upcoming LCD phone this year could become a very popular model as it could be a good high-end phone with a more affordable price," said Kylie Huang, an analyst at Daiwa Capital Market. Huang also notes that this year Pegatron's metal casing arm Casetek may supply housings for iPhones, in addition to iPads.

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