Australians may struggle to buy particular brands of smartphone this Christmas, as “significant decreases” in available stock threaten the retail sector.
IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker forecasts that, although all regions globally will see a single-digit percentage decline in available stock, the Pacific region will be down 9.1 per cent compared to available stock last Christmas.
The usual suspects are at play: the continuing components shortages, and shipping logjams.
The market declined during the September quarter by almost twice the projected rate. The phone shortage is impacting 4G phones more heavily than 5G, due to these being more susceptible to components shortages.
“This will impact vendors with a higher portfolio mix of 4G devices than vendors with a higher proportion of 5G models. These challenges surrounding 4G components have shifted our short-term forecast for Android more than iOS, which is now primarily 5G,” said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.
“On the positive side, this is expected to accelerate the jump to 5G, which is now forecast to be almost 60 per cent of worldwide shipments by this time next year.”
