Apple ‘likely’ to compensate Samsung for poor iPhone 12 mini sales, says sources
Apple is likely to be making a payment to Samsung to compensate the display manufacturer for poor iPhone 12 mini sales, according to a report from The Korea Herald that cites supply-chain sources.
The report echos a lot of what multiple sources have already suggested — that iPhone 12 mini sales have been lacklustre and well below what Apple had originally hoped for. Because of the poor performance, and alleged cuts to iPhone 12 mini production, Apple appears to be falling short of the number of displays it had hired Samsung to produce, thus incurring penalties for failing to meet its order commitments.
This isn’t the first time that Apple has owed Samsung for failing to uphold its original order commitments. The iPhone maker is understood to have paid Samsung an estimated $683 million in 2019 and approximately $950 million in 2020 for pulling production earlier than originally agreed.
Samsung Display is the sole supplier of a 5.4-inch panel for the iPhone 12 mini, the smallest model of Apple’s 5G-supporting iPhone 12 series. Industry observers are now predicting that Apple may once again have to pay Samsung a hefty penalty for not meeting the minimum order quantity.
The iPhone 12 mini accounted for just 5% of total iPhone 12 sales during the first half of January in the US, according to data from research from Counterpoint Research, with it being the only iPhone 12 model not to make it on to the most popular smartphones list for the holiday season last year.