SanDisk to Benefit From Strong iPhone 5 Demand

Apple Corp.‘s chip suppliers have benefited from the popularity of the company and their products in 2012.

In August, Apple’s valuation of $623.52 billion made it the largest U.S. company ever surpassing Microsoft.

The recently released iPhone 5 set a new record for opening weekend sales, with sales topping 5 million units. Five Star Equities examines the outlook for companies in the semiconductor industry and provides equity research on QUALCOMM, Inc. and SanDisk Corporation.

While sales of 5 million iPhones during its debut weekend fell short of analysts’ estimates, it was largely in part to supply issues.

"While the supply issues for the iPhone 5 since launch are concerning in terms of the company’s ability to fully meet demand in December, we are staying with our 49 million unit estimate for the holiday quarter," said Piper Jaffraywww.piperjaffray.com analyst Gene Munster.

Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley also expects China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier, to launch its first iPhone on its network in early January, just in time for the Chinese New Year in February.

A recent teardown of the iPhone 5 released by HIS iSuppliwww.ihs.com revealed that the second most expensive part in the iPhone was the NAND flash memory, which is now being supplied by SanDisk. The latest version of the iPhone also uses a 4G LTE chip from Qualcomm.

"The iPhone 5 exhibits a great deal of similarity to the iPhone 4S in terms of component suppliers," IHS analyst Andrew Rassweiler said in a statement. "But beyond this superficial resemblance, there are some critical changes to product design and parts that enable major upgrades that improve user experience."