The global chip shortage is causing a lot of headaches in almost all industries that rely on advanced semiconductors. It's impossible to make mobile devices without these chips. For those companies, the situation is already pretty dire.
According to a new report, the chip shortage is causing production disruption for Samsung's best-selling Galaxy A phones. The company has been unable to expand its production as much as it would like.
Galaxy A phones sales are hurting because of the chip shortage
The chip shortage was highlighted as one of the main reasons why there won't be a Galaxy Note 21 this year. Now, Samsung is also having to struggle with its impact on the Galaxy A lineup. The 2021 Galaxy A phones were launched a few months back. The Galaxy A52 and Galaxy A72 are the star handsets in this series.
Reports from Korea reveal that there have been disruptions in the production of the Galaxy A phones due to the chip shortage. The result is that Samsung isn't able to make as many units as it would like. This has delayed the release of some variants in crucial markets.
For example, despite being unveiled together, the Galaxy A72 is still not available in the US. Only the Galaxy A52 5G is. Samsung launched multiple variants of the Galaxy A71 in the US last year. So it's unlikely that the Galaxy A72 would have skipped the country.
These new handsets use Qualcomm Snapdragon chips that are produced on Samsung's 8nm LPP process. Apart from the Galaxy A series, the chipsets are also used in Xiaomi and Redmi models, further reducing the already limited supply.
As for when the situation might improve is anybody's guess right now. It's far from an ideal situation for Samsung. The Galaxy A handsets account for a significant chunk of its annual smartphone shipments. It's only once the numbers for this quarter come in will be see just how big of an impact this shortage has had.
