The disruption in supply change and the global chip shortage, caused by the pandemic is continuing to affect society as the holidays roll around. With the season filled with gift giving just upon us, Christmas shopping might be more of a headache this year with shipping timeline buying delayed and inventory maintenance at an all time low.  People looking to buy high tech gifts better plan early, experts say, such as Patrick Moorhead, chief executive of Moor Insights, a tech research firm.  The top products on top of people’s Christmas list this year are Sony’s PlayStation 5, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Nintendo’s new Switch. For most parents getting their hands on their devices through instore retail has been out of the question with supplies being minimal. Online has not been much better with online retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and more selling out in minutes and in some cases seconds. Some tech savvy individuals have turned to set up bots that are set up to launch when drops happen and check out for you in seconds. Some bots have proven to be scams however, so make sure it is not buying products directly from users. Other strategies have been utilizing Twitter to sound off notification from certain accounts that give early announcements to product release and deals. Most modern big business ecommerce sites have the power to preload account information, which is  a good idea in this instance so check out is as fast as possible.

Headphones, phones and computers have also been popular items for the holiday season but disruption of them has been disrupted by the chip shortage. Analog chips specifically,  the circuits that gadgets rely on to manage power. speakers and earphones have been out of commission. Unfortunately companies like Apple and Sony have developed their own chips for audio gear,  making their products top of line. Cheaper computer models are also taking a hit this year with the lack of USB chip controllers supplying effective manufacturing numbers. Again the more expensive big business computers such as apple, Macs are not experiencing this type of supply chain issues because they have their own USB hardwear. These effects in the supply chain have been predicted by certain tech professionals to last upwards of December 2022. For the national population the advice I gathered from experts was to shop early, plan big purchases and think creatively about gift giving, if not expect to be giving out a lot of I owe U’s.