The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE may not arrive in the market until the fourth quarter of this year. According to a new SamMobilereport, the company has had to delay the release of its upcoming affordable flagship due to the ongoing global semiconductor chip shortage. Initially expected to launch in August, the device may now break cover sometime between October and December 2021.
The report suggests that Samsung would want to release the Galaxy S21 FE as early in Q4 as possible. Since the Galaxy S22 series would start to take shape towards the end of the year, the company may find it hard to attract enough buyers for the S21 FE if it arrives too close to the new year. Of course, launching a new phone just ahead of a flagship series would kill the buzz around it as well.
Samsung forced to push back the Galaxy S21 FE release
There’s a lot of confusion around when Samsung might unveil the Galaxy S21 FE. The upcoming affordable flagship was initially expected to arrive alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Fold 3 in August. However, a report earlier this month claimed that the company has stopped the production of the new phone due to the chip shortage problem. This could cause a delay in its market debut, the report suggested.
But Samsung refuted the claims and said, “nothing has been determined regarding the alleged production suspension,” suggesting the device might still arrive on time.
However, days later, another report claimed that while there’s no forced production delay, the Korean firm has strategically pushed back the release of the Galaxy S21 FE by a couple of months to give its new foldables more time in the market. Now, a new report is suggesting that the upcoming affordable Galaxy flagship has indeed been affected by the ongoing global semiconductor chip shortage.
The latest report also adds that this chip shortage problem has affected Samsung’s recent laptops as well. The company is reportedly struggling with the production of the new devices. It has now delayed the launch of these devices in several markets around the world. If you recall, the Galaxy A72 release in the US has also been delayed to the ongoing chip issue.
This semiconductor shortage has affected the smartphone and the automotive industries alike. Worse yet, the situation seemingly isn’t improving anytime soon. So we might have to deal with the impact of this problem for months or even years to come. We will let you know if Samsung makes any official announcement regarding the delayed Galaxy S21 FE release.