Xiaomi says chip crunch can affect as many as 20m units

Chinese tech heavyweight Xiaomi Corp expects that the global chip crunch will crinkle its smartphone shipments this year by between 10 to 20 million units, and it will continue optimizing its product portfolios to cope with the prolonged supply shortage.

The comments came after Xiaomi said on Tuesday night that it generated 8.2 percent year-on-year growth in revenue to 78.1 billion yuan ($12.2 billion) in the September quarter, and its net profit after adjustment increased 25.4 percent year-on-year to 5.2 billion yuan.

Wang Xiang, president of Xiaomi, said the supply shortage will continue in the final quarter of 2021 and will likely extend to the first half of 2022. But the situation is likely to improve significantly in the second half of next year.

In the September quarter, Xiaomi's global smartphone shipments still reached 43.9 million units, despite the global shortage of key components.

According to market research company Canalys, Xiaomi's market share of smartphone shipments in the third quarter ranked No 1 in 11 countries and regions and among the top five in 59 countries and regions globally.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi said the global 30-day active users of its MIUI operating system has exceeded 500 million as of November 22, 2021, marking another milestone for the company.

In the third quarter, Xiaomi's profitability continued to strengthen as internet services revenue hit 7.3 billion yuan, reaching a new quarterly high and representing an increase of 27.1 percent year-over-year.