Volatile is an apt adjective to describe mobile devices recently. The market has fluctuated between overwhelming demand and now a supply glut. As a result, utilties can find great deals on these devices for their mobile workforce.
The pandemic rocked the laptop market. The move of workers from offices to their homes led to a dramatic sales uptick. However, vendors struggled to meet requests because of various supply chain issues.
In a number of cases, suppliers could not find workers to man their production lines. In addition, governments put restrictions in place that made it difficult to move materials from one country to another. A semiconductor shortage arose. and a ripple effect was a laptop shortage.
A Dramatic Shift in Market Conditions
Fast forward to the present. The supply chain problems have largely been rectified. However, energy company interest in mobile device ebbed: mosts employees who needed a new device have one.
The end result? A dramatic drop in sales. In 2022, shipments reached 286.2 million units, a 16.2% decrease from 2021, according to Gartner Inc..
Therefore, inventory levels have been building up, and energy companies are in a strong position to strike good deals with major suppliers. With technology advancing at a rapid rate, they can outfit their workers with state of the art systems that support new capabilities, such as Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality.
Tracking the mobile market has been difficult recently because the pandemic had an unprecedented impact on suppliers’ product delivery.  The pendulum has swung to an oversupply. Consequently, utilities are in a strong buying position for mobile worker systems and may want to take advantage of the current conditions