If you struggled to get your setup up to speed in 2020, don't expect any better this year.
The year 2020 was exceptional in many ways. The Covid-19 pandemic has shaken up everyone's habits and this has obviously had an impact on the IT industry. Companies in the industry have been forced to deal with lockdowns, curfews and telecommuting incentives. They have also been forced to rethink their production lines and, more generally, all the logistics that go with them.
These changes have turned production upside down and led to major shortages, as we have seen in the field of graphics cards or processors, key components for the assembly of a configuration. However, these most important products are not the only ones affected and, in fact, the "whole world" is concerned, as Jason Chen reminded Nikkei Asia. Acer's CEO said that " even related chips that are only worth 80 cents or even 50 cents per unit " are affected: Wi-Fi modules, power management chips, image capture, audio components and monitor panels.
Nikkei Asia also points out that these shortages due to production and logistical constraints as well as very high demand are reinforced by exceptional demand from the automotive industry, which is becoming increasingly greedy for electronic components. In fact, most players do not foresee a return to a more comfortable situation before, at best, 2022. For example, James Yang, Innolux's forecaster, explains that current lead times are unprecedented, as " suppliers cannot give a firm answer even for six months ".
