* Says units shipments and royalties miss forecasts
* Sees stronger second half on new product launches
* Says may not be enough to make up shortfall
* Shares down more than 10 pct (Adds analyst reaction, shares)
LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Imagination Technologies, the British company that supplies graphics technologyto Apple, forecast a surprise first-half loss due to aweaker semiconductor market.
It said on Wednesday the drop in demand was driven in partby sharply slowing growth rates in emerging economies, and inparticular the Chinese market.
Shares in Imagination, which dipped when Apple disappointedthe market with its own forecasts in July, were down 10.5percent at 232.25 pence by 0750 GMT.
Analysts estimate Apple accounts for just over a third ofImagination's revenues, with most demand coming from the iPhone.
Imagination said overall unit shipments and royalty revenuein the industry's June quarter were slightly lower than itsexpectations, which was likely to lead to it making a loss inits fiscal first half to the end of October.
Worries about the strength of the market were eased onMonday, however, when Apple said advance orders of its newiPhone were strong and it was on track to beat the 10 millionunits previous versions logged in their first weekend last year.
Imagination said that, based on customer product launches,and the strength of its licensing pipeline, it now expected astronger second half than it had previously forecast.
"However, at this early stage of the year, we cannot becertain that we will recover all of the first-half shortfall,"the company said.
Jefferies analyst Robert Lamb said he thought the companymay struggle to achieve year-on-year operating profit growth,and analysts' consensus forecast would have to come down by atleast 20 percent.
Analysts had expected Imagination to report a pretax profitof 21 million pounds ($32 million) for the year ending April2016, according to Thomson Reuters data.
($1 = 0.6518 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Louise Heavens and MarkPotter)
