By Furqan Shahid
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 was unveiled last year, and at the moment, it is the latest and greatest the company has to offer. Since then, we have seen the chip appear in several flagship devices, including the Galaxy S21 series, ROG Phone 5, and a few devices from Oppo and Xiaomi, along with the upcoming OnePlus 9 series. Needless to say, there are a lot of devices that are still going to release with the Snapdragon 888 chipset, but the latest report suggests that Qualcomm might not be able to supply enough Snapdragon 888 chips.
Qualcomm Facing Chip Shortage for Snapdragon 888 Along with Mid-Range Chips
A new report coming from Reuters points out that Qualcomm is struggling to meet the demand for both the Snapdragon 888 and the mid-range chips. This struggle is happening because of a global semiconductor shortage. Sources familiar with the detail have talked about how Qualcomm chips have hit the production of Samsung’s mid-range and low-end models, and the company’s flagship Snapdragon 888 chips are also in short supply.
Although Samsung is quiet on the matter, a Qualcomm representative has talked about how the company believes that it can meet the fiscal second-quarter. Despite what the representative has said, a senior executive at the top contract manufacturer for several phone companies has told Reuters that it was facing a shortage of Qualcomm components and would cut the handset shipment this year. Considering how the shortage is not limited to the Snapdragon 888, we can expect a significant sales decline across the board for all smartphones this year.
It is important to note that Qualcomm is not the only company affected by the global semiconductor shortage. Many automobile and consumer electronics companies are also facing the same issue, which is resulting in stockpiling, further worsening the situation.
We are not sure when the situation will return to normal, we hope that the shortage does not affect the price as the prices can increase for the chips, ultimately affecting smartphone prices.
