Pandemic Is The Cause Of Smartphone And Laptop Prices To Continue To Rise, How Come?

Semiconductor chipset illustration (Android Authority)

JAKARTA - The biggest impact of the pandemic is the consumption pattern of the people. As a result of the slowing economy, most Indonesians prefer to save money rather than satisfy their shopping desires.

If you look at the simple economic law, when the demand is low while the production of goods continues, the product should be sold cheaply. But, strangely, we cannot find this from the price of a smartphone or laptop.

Indeed, every vendor that distributes its products in Indonesia has launched mobile phones for the low-cost segment. The market segment where products are sold is usually priced at only IDR 1 million to IDR 3 million. The choices are more numerous and varied.

But, it must be admitted, if there is a slight improvement in the latest mobile phones. And based on the investigation of The Guardian, the trend of increasing smartphone prices during the pandemic does not only occur in Indonesia. It's the whole world.

So, what causes the price of smartphones and laptops to continue to rise?

Scarcity of Chipset

Both smart televisions, laptops, and smartphones. What is clear, all electronic products with the addition of "smart" on the back require support from the chipset. Or in technical language better known as System on Chipset.

No doubt, when the number of chipsets on the market is running low, it will immediately have an impact on the selling price of certain electronic products. And the scarcity of chipsets is currently facing smartphone vendors from around the world.

Based on The Guardian's records, the shortage of chipsets on the market has actually been going on since last year. To be precise, when the pandemic started. This is because several factories have been forced to stop production due to the lockdown policy implemented by several regions or countries.

Indeed, now production is back to normal. However, the increase in demand due to changes in consumption patterns due to the pandemic has triggered new problems. The reason is, now those who need a chipset are not only smartphones and laptops.

In retrospect for a moment, the pandemic resulted in several excellent products. Call it smart televisions, electric cars, the latest generation of game consoles, to cell phones with 5G technology. Each of them has quite high interest.

In fact, technology giants like Apple, the world's semiconductor buying company that spends $ 58 billion each year, are forced to postpone the launch of the iPhone 12 for up to 2 months due to the dwindling availability of chipsets.

Not only Apple, large automotive manufacturers like Ford were also affected. The car manufacturer from the country of Uncle Sam was forced to stop production from two factories due to a lack of chipsets. As a result, it is estimated that Ford will lose up to $ 2.5 billion by the end of this year.

In the auto industry, Ford is not the only one. The reason is, there are still Nissan and General Motor which are overshadowed by the same nightmare. Meanwhile, in the gaming industry, Sony and several center console manufacturers are struggling with the low availability of chipsets.