In mid-October, Samsung held another Unpacked event showing new colors and special editions for previously announced products, but not including new devices. The launch of a new product at least seemed logical at the “for fans” event, and the best candidate was the more affordable “Fan Edition – FE” model of the Galaxy S21. However, it was not expected. And the question of where the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is still remains a mystery.
The general expectation was that the Galaxy S21 FE would launch in September, a year after the previous version of the popular Samsung Galaxy S20 FE was unveiled at the August 2020 Unpacked event. Now in late October, rumors suggest that a cheaper version of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE could launch in January alongside the Samsung Galaxy S22.
“We cannot comment on our product roadmap, but we are focused on listening to consumer needs and providing options for every price point in our mobile portfolio,” a Samsung spokesperson told TechRadar over the question of the S21 FE. The statement continues: “We are seeing a lot of demand and interest, both with the current S-series and with our latest foldable devices. We are currently prioritizing these devices to meet the needs of our customers.”
There are enough rumors and leaks that the Galaxy S21 FE will be released somehow. However, the fact that the phone has not been released yet raises some questions.
Predictably, one possible cause could be supply chain issues and chip shortages that prevent almost everything from GPUs and PS5s to cars and consumers. The impact of Covid-19 on resource supply, production, shipping, local transportation and retail sales remains. Considering the 10 million iPhone 13 production gap, it can be estimated that the problem also applies to other phones.
As April 2020 approaches, reports are starting to come in that Covid-19 outbreaks are causing shutdowns and disruptions at production facilities in China and elsewhere. As Avi Greengart, founder of technology research and analytics firm Techsponential, points out, this has resulted in a global chip shortage affecting many industries.
“The initial cuts in China stopped smartphone production for a few weeks, but that wasn’t too problematic because there was also a drop in smartphone sales during the first quarantines in the US and Europe,” says Greengart. There has been a surge in demand, which has made it difficult to procure components for smartphones, GPUs, game consoles, PCs, home appliances and cars.”
But the smartphone industry has been much less affected than other industries. Some phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 series, have shrunk in supply, but not as badly as PS5s and GPUs.
According to IDC mobile industry analyst Nabila Popal, this is largely because the phone industry as a whole has grown over the years, as opposed to the PC and laptop industry, which has stagnated or even declined. The firm expected the smartphone industry to grow in 2020 and therefore was able to better weather the shock of Covid.
Popal says another reason the cell phone industry is better able to accept supply chain disruption is that the industry is in the process of transitioning from 4G to 5G, which requires new chipsets and modems. This meant that smartphone manufacturers had to set up their own new supply and production chains to produce new silicon, and they weren’t equally affected by the global chip shortage.
Although Popal did not openly say that the reason for the delay of the Galaxy S21 FE is that it was affected by the chip shortage like other 4G models, it is possible to deduce this from his comments in general. While there is no clear answer from Samsung itself or from analysts that the shortage of supply is causing the delay of the Galaxy S21 FE, their impact on the availability of current phones is clear. There was even a complete cancellation of the new Galaxy Note, another highly anticipated Samsung device.
Still, we expect the Galaxy S21 FE to be released somehow. However, it is not difficult to predict that Samsung’s expectation from the phone will be kept quite low compared to the beginning.
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