As the company is trying to step away from China

Feb 6, 2023 06:18 GMT  ·  By

It’s no longer a secret that Apple is trying to reduce its reliance on Chinese suppliers, and the company is working around the clock on making this happen.

Most recently, the iPhone maker has decided to promote AOET, which previously supplied lenses for the Mac, to an iPad lenses supplier.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says AOET should begin producing lenses for the tablet in the second half of this year, and of course, it would generate not only an improvement for the supplier’s long-term revenue but also significant progress in Apple’s reliance on Chinese partners.

“Benefiting from the new iPad orders, AOET’s revenue and profit in 2H23 could grow YoY amid the recession. Looking into the mid-to-long term, AOET could follow in the footsteps of Sunny Optical’s growth in Apple’s lens supply chain by first getting iPad orders, then increasing the supply ratio of iPad orders, and eventually obtaining iPhone orders,” Kuo says.

Largan, which is the biggest AOET shareholder, will also help the company in the long term, especially as its patents would help secure more orders.

But without a doubt, the biggest win for the company is the partnership with Apple, especially because the Cupertino-based tech giant is expected to account for the biggest part of its orders.

“AOET has reached strategic cooperation with a key US laptop brand client and will start shipping CCMs as early as 2024. It will help the customer reduce its dependence on Chinese suppliers from 2024 to 2026. This move will benefit AOET’s long-term profitability and serve as a new growth driver in the future,” Kuo said.

Apple’s iPad remains the number one tablet in the entire world, and in the last quarter, it accounted for no more, no less than 50 percent of all tablets sold across the globe.