Samsung Electronics is facing production problems for its Galaxy A series of smartphones due to the current global chip shortage, TheElec has learned.
A person familiar with the matter said there has been no official sales date set for most regions in the world for Galaxy A52, A52 5G and A72, which were unveiling on March 17.
The limited availability indicates that Samsung is facing problem with procuring the application processors (AP) needed for the phones, they said.
The phones has only been released in some countries in Europe. US has only A52 5G available.
A wider release was expected by April.
The three new phones use Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G and 750G. These are made by Samsung Foundry suing 8-nanometer Low Power Plus (LPP) process
The APs are also used in various mid-tier phones by Chinese companies such as Xiaomi.
Another person familiar with the matter, who works at a supplier to Samsung, said the shortage has caused production plans for the A series to be delayed. This has caused worries for suppliers who provide components for the series over delayed revenues, they said.
In February, Qualcomm CEO-elect Cristiano Amon said he expected the chip shortage to continue up to the end of the year. In March, DJ Koh, CEO of Samsung’s IT & Mobile Communication business, said there was a serious of imbalance in supply and demand of chips.
The chip shortage has been mainly caused by lack of production capacity of contract chip makers to meet demand.
Natural disasters and accidents has also exasperated the situation. Samsung halted its Austin chip plant due to cold weather earlier this year. TSMC saw its fabs affected by drought and power outages.
Another cause has been customers double-booking orders, due to their anxiety over procurement.
