The chip crisis begins to make itself felt also in the smartphone market-HDblog.it

So far we have seen the main repercussions of the chip availability crisis in the automotive, video card and console sectors, but the nodes are also coming to the comb for smartphones. Counterpoint's latest analysis shows that global growth this year will be significantly lower than expected due to semiconductor supply difficulties, mainly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (then, of course, if the ever give had not got in the way, we would have all been happier) and the sudden increase in demand from the increasingly technological and connected automotive world.

In 2020, smartphones shipped were 1,331 billion, notes Counterpoint: one of the worst results of recent years, caused by the most acute phases of the pandemic and the strictest lockdowns. In 2021 the forecast until a few months ago was to reach 1.447 billion, instead it has now been adjusted to 1.414 billion. It is almost 50 million units less, which further distances us from the result of 2019-the most recent year of "normality", in which 1.479 billion smartphones had been shipped. As a percentage, the growth forecast has increased from 9% (again on an annual basis) to only 6%.

Analysts report that, according to their internal sources, manufacturers claimed that they had received only 80% of the chips ordered in the second quarter of 2021. And the situation seems to deteriorate: in the third quarter it is likely that the average of orders escaped will fall to just 70%. Counterpoint notes that the crisis affects some of the brands in the industry, but some more than others. Or, more precisely: apple less than Android competitors, such as Samsung, Xiaomi and OPPO. However, it is interesting to note that just yesterday we reported to you that the delivery times of the brand new iPhone 13 were considerably longer, so the analysts' considerations could be corrected in a short time.

As Counterpoint itself demonstrates, making reliable predictions at this chaotic and complicated stage is very hard, if not impossible. The models that were valid before have not come back to work completely, and it is not even said that they will ever do so. In any case, most experts believe that this crisis situation will continue for a long time: it may take as long as 2023 to see a normalization. Large international foundries, such as TSMC, Samsung and Intel, are rushing to expand their factories, but the process takes time. The (lean) consolation is that after the famine the abundance will follow: when all the factories are in regime the supply will exceed the demand, and the prices, we hope, will fall decisively.