New phones are getting delayed  because of chip shortage around the world. It all started after the beginning of the worldwide pandemic of Coronavirus. The smartphone market showed a high demand on their latest midrange and flagship phones. It continued to grow after the announcement of 5G phones, especially the midrange category. A good explanation of this is the predictions for Apple to sell over 240 million smartphones this year, which exceeds its score for the iPhone 6s 220+ million, and most of the sales are for iPhone SE and iPhone 12. Other brands are seeing a high demand on their smartphones too while Huawei is now suffering because of US sanctions with declining sales worldwide while other smartphone brands are profiting from this! 

The latest reports show that Qualcomm fell to the second place after MediaTek sales skyrocketed. As per the report, MediaTek shipped 351.8 million smartphone chipsets in 2020 – an increase of 113.8 million over 2019. It now holds a global market share of 27.2 percent, as compared to 17.2 percent in 2019. The growth in MediaTek’s business comes due to the company’s focus on entry-level and mid-range smartphones which have the most demand. 

The chip shortage forced Apple to delay its launch of the iPhone 12 by two months last year. This year, there is a huge chance we will not see a new Samsung Note series because of chip shortage, despite Samsung being a big chip supplier. Huawei P50 pro is delayed till May or June also because of chip shortage, adding Huawei will not be able to add a charger in the box for the same reason!

Huawei CEO Eric Xu said in a speech at the Analyst Summit that the companies had not previously sought to stockpile chips. This was simply not necessary. Now, many manufacturers prefer to stock up for good, creating a stock for 3-6 months in advance. All this ultimately disrupted the well-coordinated work of the supply chain; component manufacturers simply cannot keep up with demand.

According to the top manager of Huawei, it is the United States that may be to blame for the onset of the global economic crisis. With its sanctions, America destroyed the partnerships and trust that existed in the chip supply chain. 

In the meantime, there are not enough chips for new phones, new Xboxes, and new cars. This demonstrates once again the importance of the global supply chain for the functioning of the world’s economies. So, who’s fault do you think this is?