Broadcom CEO Ducks Questions After Dropping Hints of iPhone 12 ‘Cycle Delays’

Senior Broadcom executives sidestepped questions on a quarterly investor call Thursday about their disclosures of “product cycle delays” that will hold back a large customer’s flagship smartphone introduction until later in 2020. Broadcom’s wireless components revenue in Q2 ended May 3 declined 14% sequentially from Q1 on “typical seasonality” trends, said CEO Hock Tan. In Q3 ending early August, “we would normally expect to see a double-digit sequential uplift in revenue from the ramp of the next-generation phone at our large North American mobile phone customer,” he said in apparent reference to Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 12, its first 5G smartphone. “However, this year, we do not expect to see this uptick in revenue until our fourth fiscal quarter” ending early November, he said. It expects Q3 wireless income to be down sequentially as in Q2. “Because of product cycle delays, the trough for our fiscal year will be Q3 this coming quarter, and that’s what we reflected in our forecast,” said Tan. “Nothing has changed in terms of designs,” just the “timing” of the introduction, he said. Apple didn’t comment Friday.