Apple launch hits UK chip firm Imagination Technologies

Shares in two leading British technology companies which work with Apple suffered a mixed reaction today following the launch of the larger iPhone6 and the new, body-sensitive Apple Watch.

Imagination Technologies, the FTSE 250 designer of graphic and video processors for Apple devices, saw shares climb 0.7%, or 1.4p, to 211.4p amid optimism.

But FTSE 100 computer-chip designer ARM slipped by 2.3%, or 22.7p, to 949.8p, as the company’s shares had risen more than a tenth during the last month ahead of the news, and City analysts said that they saw no further positive news following Apple’s announcement.

However, the broker, Liberum Capital, was upbeat about Imagination, saying “we expect all Apple’s mobile devices to use Imagination’s graphics and video” intellectual property and “should make Imagination’s position even stickier” in terms of retaining business.

Liberum reckons as much as 30% of Imagination’s revenues come from Apple in contrast to ARM, which only gets about 5% of its sales from the iPhone giant.

Apple’s own shares slipped more than half a per cent in trading in Europe as investors had anticipated most of the new products.

The shares have risen by one third during the last year in anticipation of the new range, which had been widely hyped as the biggest Apple launch since the iPad in 2010.