Chip Crisis Affecting Smartphones Sales

The smartphone industry is just as affected by the bottlenecks in semiconductor components as other areas of the economy. Even if the public excitement is much less here, there are delivery problems and postponed new presentations.

The sales figures fell in the third quarter of this year at least significantly less than in the same period of the previous year. According to the market research company Gartner, 6.8 percent fewer devices were sold worldwide. However, missing components were not the only factor here, as there was a little less interest in smartphones before.

That was because users then went back to the fact that PCs and notebooks are also practical devices. Home office and other pandemic-driven factors caused a corresponding shift in consumer investments. This development has recently weakened somewhat.

Apple’s Edge

The smartphone manufacturers accordingly hoped that the corona wave in PCs would abate and buyers would return to them more strongly, but where this was the case, the component shortage now slowed growth. Here, too, there was no lack of high-end components, but rather simpler chips for energy management or control of radio frequencies.

Above all, Apple was able to benefit from this, as the group has long-term supply contracts and, with its slightly higher margins, also has the leeway to spend a little more on simpler components if necessary. The company was able to expand its market share in the third quarter from 11.1 to 14.2 percent. Market leader Samsung however, had to accept the fact that its share fell from 22.1 to 20.2 percent. The Chinese providers Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo, on the other hand, also posted slight increases, placing themselves around the 10 percent mark.