Market struggles at Nokia Corp. have had ripple effects among the company’s major suppliers that could reshape the global supply chain for smartphones.
The emerging crisis among suppliers is one more sign of how the continued consumer shift from feature phones to smartphones is upending more mature tech-industry players and remaking the landscape beyond device makers.
Nokia’s struggles are impacting the global chain of smartphone parts suppliers. The emerging crisis is made worse by moves by Apple and Samsung manufacturing parts of their own design, Don Clark reports on digits.
As chip makers, for example, struggle to unhinge themselves from the quickly sinking European handset giant, they are finding an even more competitive market beyond Nokia. That is because Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., the industry’s two biggest smartphone players by volume, have locked them out of the market by designing and manufacturing chips for their devices on their own.
“We knew they were on their way down,” said Philippe Lambinet, STMicroelectronics NV senior executive vice president and corporate-strategy officer, referring to Nokia, “but we didn’t think it would be that bad.”
To read the full story, click on Nokia’s Troubles Hit Suppliers – WSJ.com.
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