Apple Inc is designing its own main power management chips for use in iPhones as early as in 2018, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday, triggering slide of over 20 percent in shares of Dialog Semiconductor Plc. Responding to the Nikkei report, which quoted unnamed sources, a Dialog spokesman said its business situation had not changed. A second person cited by Nikkei said that Apple was indeed developing power management chips for iPhones but that a rollout may be delayed until 2019. TSMC, the world's biggest contract chipmaker, has been Apple's sole supplier of core processor chips for iPhones since 2016 and it also makes Dialog's power management chips. Two years ago up to three-quarters of revenue came from being the sole supplier of power management chips for use in Apple devices.

Source: Economic Times November 30, 2017 13:41 UTC