New Wave7 report says shortage of Samsung phones in the U.S. is helping the 5G iPhone 13 series

The latest Monthly Wave7 research report has been released and the 40 carrier reps that it surveyed said that the chip shortage has led to a handset shortage. Carriers have been short of Samsung Galaxy S21 handsets forcing them to push other Samsung phones. The report quotes a carrier rep as saying that he hasn’t seen a Galaxy S21 handset since “since Moses parted the Red Sea.”

Short supply of Samsung phones has led the iPhone 13 series to show stronger demand on an annual basis

The short supply of Samsung Galaxy phones has helped increase demand for the iPhone 13 line and 65% of store reps surveyed by the researcher say that the demand for the iPhone 13 series is higher than the demand for the iPhone 12 series at the same stage. 28% of the reps say that demand is the same from the previous year with 14% saying that demand is weaker. These numbers are pretty much in line with September’s figures.

The iPhone made up 72% of Verizon’s smartphone sales last month while Samsung accounted for 23%

Reps say that the iPhone 13 Pro Max and larger-screened phones are doing well as they are being used for Zoom video conferences/

According to the report, despite heavy advertising by Google, the report says that the reps showed very little enthusiasm for the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro even though carrier stores and Best Buy have put up signs for the pair. While Pixel models saw their shares at Verizon and AT&T rise from 1% in September to 3% in October, the phones were released on October 28th which was too late to have much of an impact on the survey and next month’s report will give us much more information. Before the Pixel 6 series was released last month, T-Mobile had dropped its only Pixel unit in June, and Verizon, which was carrying the Pixel 5, was out of stock last month.

Motorola’s share at postpaid carriers rose slightly last month. T-Mobile has three Motorola phones free with the addition of a new line. This includes the Moto G Pure which Verizon is also offering. The latter has launched the $550 Motorola Motorola Edge 5G UW, which will support Verizon’s 5G V-band spectrum. Speaking of Motorola, strong sales of the Moto G Pure helped Motorola’s share at Metro come close to 30%. But this month, Moto’s share at Metro has slipped to approximately 25% as Moto G Pure sales took some business away from the Moto G Play.

The Wave7 report says that TCL has a big hit at Metro with its TCL 20 XE. TCL also has a winner with the TCL 4X 5G, priced at only $199.99.