“The outcome has been a global shortage affecting industries manufacturing cars, video game consoles, and GPS trackers like PocketFinder uses.”
Watching the news or reading the paper, you have more than likely seen headlines about supply chain shortages. While supply chain issues are not unheard of, since 2020, there has been one supply chain with a consistent shortage - microchips. The outcome has been a global shortage affecting industries manufacturing cars, video game consoles, and GPS trackers like PocketFinder uses. This is causing a shortage of products and increased prices - meaning consumers are directly affected.
In 2020, a global pandemic occurred that disrupted numerous supply chains on both the macro and micro levels. As businesses have started to come fully back online the last few years, production is playing catch up. There are backorders to fulfill not just for one company, but for most companies.
For US businesses and customers in particular, there are other factors at play as well. The microchips we use in cell phones, cars, computers, video game consoles, TV’s, etc. are no longer manufactured in the US. This means that while companies like AT&T and Verizon have “in-house”/ branded SIMs, they still have to place an order to an outside company in another country for manufacturing and wait for them to ship. These manufacturers not only make microchips for US and European companies, but for their own in-house brands and products as well. This means US companies are competing with the manufacturer itself for new microchips that are made.
On top of that, the raw materials used in modern microchips are often precious metals mined in conflict zones. This means shipments of raw materials can be inconsistent. So, literally from the ground up, the global supply chain of microchips has been affected.
Luckily, PocketFinder was at the ready and is still actively fulfilling orders for businesses and consumers alike. We have a solid relationship with AT&T, our SIM card (microchip) supplier for our vehicle tracker as well as with our manufacturing/ SIM partner for our personal tracker. These established relationships have allowed us to schedule orders and be guaranteed set amounts of devices as soon as they become available. As back orders continue to be fulfilled by manufacturers, PocketFinder is in a place where new and current customers should see minimal disruptions to new hardware orders.