Mobile phone chipmaker Qualcomm is warning smartphone manufacturers to expect shortages of its 32nm S4 Snapdragon chip.

Qualcomm says the third party factories who manufacture the top-of-the-range chip won't be able to meet the high demand until the end of the year.

Those hit hardest by the shortage will be Android and Windows-based phone manufacturers who had intented to use the chip in their phones.

HTC uses the S4 for its highly praised HTC One range. Other OEMs publicly announced include Panasonic, ZTE and Asus, while all Windows Phone devices use Qualcomm chips of some form.

Burnt by the dragon

Qualcomm's COO Steve Mollenkopf confirmed that the problem was it has underestimated demand for the chip during a conference call to investors.

To combat the shortage Qualcomm is trying to push alternative chips as well as finding more manufacturers to outsource the chip's production.

Despite this, Qualcomm expects smartphone makers to seek chipsets from its competitors, such as Nvidia, Samsung and TI to keep up with demand.

"We've been helping customers to see how they can swap in our Fusion 2 chipset... [but] we do expect to see some alternative non-Qualcomm chipsets used to solve that issue as well."

Snap back

Informa Telecom's principal analyst Malik Saadi commented on the shortage saying this news could have a limited effect on smartphone shipments as companies seek out new chips.

"Looking forward, this will impact shipments of mass-market smartphones as firms re-engineer their devices, but having said that, I think the industry should not take too long to catch up.

"This isn't the first time we've seen this kind of problem when a chip designer upgrades to a new semiconductor design."

Qualcomm recently announced record Q1 financials with FY12 Q2 sales up 28% to $4.9 billion.

[source: BBC News]