According to Wave7 Research, which produces monthly reports on the US mobile-phone market based on surveys of retailers, the global chipset shortage is hurting ‘everybody but Apple,’ especially the supply of lower-cost Android phones in the U.S. (via PCMag).
Sources have told Wave7 Research that Apple was able to lock down chipset supply well ahead of time. This was not the case for other OEMs,” says Jeff Moore, principal at Wave7. Based on the most recent survey of US carrier stores, Samsung and OnePlus are particularly hard hit.
The report notes that shortage is “uneven by carrier, channel, and even by store.” Furthermore, AT&T is the least affected, but only because it has the most iPhone-heavy customer base.
“iPhone share overall did not fall in July, as might be expected ahead of a September iPhone launch,” the report says. “Ongoing iPhone 12 resilience and issues with Samsung inventory were the top factors for this.”
Samsung’s problems aren’t happening with its flagships. The Galaxy S21 and S21 Ultra are still selling well, the report says. Rather, Verizon is out of stock of the Galaxy A02s, the Note 20, the Galaxy A01, the Galaxy A21 and the Galaxy A51, the report says.
Samsung supply is expected to remain “bumpy” for the rest of 2021, the report adds.
