A serious global ship shortage could delay the launch of the next Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone.
This is according to a recent report from Samsung’s latest shareholders meeting as reported by CNBC. The demand for IT chips might in fact force Samsung to entirely skip the launch of the extremely popular smartphone range.
So what caused the chip shortage?
The shortage of the chipset was partly caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the cascading effects of the lockdown and factory shutdowns. Companies slashed their production goals and consequently the chipset manufacturers as a response did the same.
With the world economy showing early signs of recovery, chipset manufacturers are now playing the catch-up game to satisfy the rising demand for the chipsets.
The shortage is an industry-wide issue as it has also affected several global companies such as LG, Nissan, and Volkswagen. Automotive companies have been hit particularly hard by the shortage and are now resorting to leaving out high-end features such as onboard navigation that require the use of the chips.
With LG now out of the smartphone manufacturing game, the shortage will likely hit its appliance business.
The chipset is the most important of the smartphone since it’s basically the ‘brain’ that issues instructions to the rest of the components. The shortage of the chips will likely affect the supply of the smartphone and consequently lead to an increase in the price of smartphones to account for this.
China remains the largest producer of chipsets and therefore, it is unlikely that Chinese-based smartphone vendors will take a significant hit from the shortage. There is also some evidence that some of the smartphone vendors built a decent stockpile of the chips as a move to counter to impending shortage.
Related: OPPO and Xiaomi reportedly working on proprietary 5G chipsets
Kevin is a tech enthusiast and the lead writer at MobiTrends.co.ke. He has been writing about smartphones and tech related topics since October 2012. About Us | Contact Us
