The troubling semiconductor shortage

The global shortage of semiconductors is already set to disappoint some holiday shoppers in 2021. These electrical materials are critical components to countless electronics including LED lighting. While most Americans associate string lights with Christmas, consumers are increasingly buying outdoor/indoor string lights for home entertainment and backyard decoration. Twinkly, LED Smart Light, was forewarned by contacts at wafer foundries in September last year that the semiconductor shortage was imminent.

“Some retailers like Best Buy are already stocking and selling in the Spring and Summer. But will there be enough stock to get to the Winter holidays? Maybe not. It is surprising how every year we are selling between 2 and 3 times more than the year before and every year we sell out by the end of November,” says Twinkly CEO Andrea Tellatin.

The semiconductor shortage means Twinkly must postpone orders that came in after April 1 until 2022, countless other consumer product companies are experiencing the same delay. This past Christmas, Twinkly Smart Lighting Strings nearly sold out when consumer demand, pandemic surged for home goods well past projected estimates. That striking growth transitioned Twinkly Smart Lighting to maintain their all-seasons outdoor/indoor lighting year-round in stores.

Twinkly is more than simply Smart Lights that stay up all year outdoors or inside to coordinate colors, pulses and music movement for any holiday. These new generation LED light strings are smartphone controllable, and Twinkly has the patent on pairing computer mapping with lighting. This way each light, which is a pixel, behaves the same way it looks on the screen. Twinkly combines colorful RGB LED lights with an impressive variety of levels for brightness, speed, intensity, and color palettes; fully controlled though the Twinkly app on a smartphone

The semiconductor shortage is also expected to disappoint gamers at Christmas. Now that Twinkly has made this technology available and affordable to U.S. consumers, it has secured a strong niche with gamers. The Razer Chroma™and Twinkly RGB pairing combined their revolutionary hardware and software technology to usher in a new dimension of gaming. The reactive lighting can flood a room with color on every winning move creating an immersive experience for the ultimate multi-sensory gaming experience which makes it the perfect graduation or Christmas present.

According to Tellatin, “There is no question many brands will not be on the shelves for Christmas time. Some of them have already announced there is no more product availability for the year. And I do believe the worst is yet to come. This crisis is just the tip of the iceberg, and the full industrial ecosystem will face long-term consequences, from transportation availability, to process inefficiency. All of this will have an impact on availability and prices.”

Christmas shopping will start earlier than usual for many Americans hoping to score the perfect gift, especially if that gift just happens to be built with a semiconductor.

Affiliates: Best Buy, Amazon