Samsung Electronics supplier Audience warned it faces a loss in the current quarter, joining a growing list of component makers that are hurting as sales of the upmarket Galaxy S4 smartphone fall short of expectations.
Shares in Audience, which makes chips that improve voice quality in mobile devices by filtering out background noise, fell 23 per cent in after-hours trading to US$9.70.
Samsung sold 76 million smartphones in its latest quarter, Strategy Analytics estimates, but many were cheaper models.
Analysts have in recent months slashed their sales forecasts for the S4 by as much as 30 per cent and say stockpiles of unsold phones saw it cut orders for the most sophisticated parts.
Smartphone parts suppliers such as Audience, Atmel Corp
and Maxim Integrated Products Inc, which all rely on Samsung for a major share of their revenue are now suffering, in a turnaround from strong sales in the past year.