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Slowdown: Goldman Chops 2012 Mobile Phone Unit Forecast

This article is more than 10 years old.

Citing weaker end demand and ongoing inventory cuts, Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski this morning chopped her forecast for 2012 mobile phone shipments. She now sees overall unit growth this year of 4%, down from a previous forecast of 10% growth. She reduces her smartphone growth forecast to 38%, from 42%.

The Goldman analyst notes that there have been a plethora of negative data points on the handset sector in recent weeks, including negative pre announcements from Research In Motion, HTC and Nokia, and weaker shipment targets at Huawei and ZTE. Samsung, she adds, is tracking "in line at best for the quarter."

Janakowsi trimmed her handset unit forecasts for China, Western Europe, Brazil and the rest of Latin America, cutting smartphone expectations for both North America and Western Europe.

The major mobile phones stocks are getting battered in trading Monday morning:

  • RIMM, which was downgraded today by Morgan Stanley, is down 77 cents, or 7.9%, to $9.08.
  • Nokia is down 23 cents, or 9.7%, to $2.15.
  • Apple is down $9.69, or 1.7%, to $572.41.
  • Qualcomm is down $1.95, or 3.5%, to $53.69.