(Bloomberg) -- Broadcom Inc. Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan said the company's wireless business performed better than expected due to demand for older smartphones from a North American customer.
Broadcom reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit that topped Wall Street estimates on Thursday. Tan said "upside volumes of legacy phone generations from our North American customer" helped the wireless division.
Tan didn't mention Apple Inc. by name, but the iPhone maker is Broadcom's largest North American partner, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The comments suggest Apple has seen strong sales of older iPhone models. Other suppliers have indicated weaker demand for the latest iPhone lineup -- the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max.
Speaking about Broadcom's fiscal first quarter, which ends in late January, Tan said the company's wireless business expects a "seasonal downtick."
"You've seen reported it out there," he added.
Upon releasing the latest iPhones, Apple cut the price of older models. Apple sells the iPhone 7 for $449 and the iPhone 8 for $599, well below the $999 pricing of the iPhone XS.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Gurman in San Francisco at mgurman1@bloomberg.net;Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr
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