In 2021, the world faced a global chip crisis that will expectedly affect the smartphone industry until at least 2023. Due to several reasons regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, chip manufacturers were unable to bridge the gap between demand and supply. The production problems eventually resulted into a chip shortage, with several negative consequences for the smartphone industry but somewhat positive effects on the smartphone repair industry and environment.
Shortage of smartphones due to the chip crisis
The smartphone industry is facing the biggest impact being caused by the chip shortage, because smartphones cannot miss these critical components. The effect of this is that several brands are having problems with the delivery of new smartphones. Several brands are having a hard time delivering new smartphones and launches of new smartphone devices had to be postponed. Customers are nowadays still facing an increase of delivery times and smartphone prices.
Because the smartphone industry will need some time to fill the caused gap between supply and demand, consequences like shortage of delivery and rising of prices will still be a problem in 2022 and most expectedly also in 2023.
In need of a new phone? How the chip shortage makes people think twice
These problems that customers face, will make them think twice about getting a brand-new phone. Instead, people are forced to think about sustainability, recycling and upgrading the life cycle of an existing or already owned smartphone.
We humans tend to buy new things easily. When your current phone is facing a defect, the chances are high that you’ll be triggered “to just buy a new one”, because buying new things is what we our system has thought us. But, now that it’s harder for consumers to buy new devices, it’s much more attractive to get the old smartphones repaired. Also getting a refurbished device will become much more attractive, because prices and delivery times will be less.
In other words: the shortage of chips and new smartphone devices will increase the demand of smartphone repair services, which is a favorable outlook for the Repair Industry and the market of refurbished phones.
The right to repair and reduction of e-waste
Recycling and environmental awareness are nowadays more important than ever, and this is another positive side effect that comes with the demanded increase of repair services. The circle of fans regarding repair and refurbishment is growing bigger and bigger, which led to the raise of the right-to-repair movement. This movement is hot topic all over the world and was lately being talked about a lot in the US as a result of President Joe Biden’s recent tweet.
When you own a product, you should be able to repair it yourself. That’s why I included support for the “right to repair” in my Executive Order.
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 24, 2022
Now, companies like Apple and Microsoft are changing their policies so folks will be able to repair their devices themselves.
The global chip shortage requires consumers to think differently about smartphones now that the options of buying a new device are less. The shortage of chips will result in more environmentally conscious choices, a reduce of e-waste, a growth of the right-to-repair movement and a growth in the repair industry regarding technicians, suppliers and clients.
To read the whole article ZDNet wrote about this topic, click here.