If there’s one thing other than toilet roll that has seen a run on availability during the recent weeks, it’s been tech components. With many items seeing increased shipping times or even worse, stock shortages, it has been a frustrating time for PC gear buyers the world over who may be looking to relieve the boredom by putting a new rig together.
People have been flooding to buy tech such as webcams and microphones so they can keep in touch with their loved ones during all the social distancing and lockdowns.
Indeed the NPD market research group announced earlier this week that sales of webcams were up an astonishing 179%.
NPD group vice president of technology Stephen Baker said in a recent blog post: “Whether working or learning from home, productivity hardware is required, and with many Americans settling into this new reality, we saw historic sales increase over the first two weeks of March,”
With sales figures like these, it is no wonder retailers, who’s stocking algorithms were not ready for an event of this magnitude, have simply been able to supply demand.
Manufacturers such as Logitech have now stepped in to increase production, at factories which are beginning to reopen in the East, to get stock back on shelves.
A Logitech spokesperson told tech website Tom’s Hardware: “Our factories are well-positioned to meet ‘normal’ demands of our business; however, the events of the last few weeks have significantly changed that demand, and we are increasing production to meet those needs.
“We have aggressively increased production to focus on more quantities of webcams in order to meet the high demand. We are utilizing every distribution option to improve supply, and each week more supply is coming in to fulfill market demand,” the rep said. “We have every confidence that demand will be met in the next 4-6 weeks.”
That is some response to be able to turn around significant numbers of new stock in that time period, but it might be scant consolation for family members isolating alone at the moment.
PC Guide will be putting together a regularly updated page with the best webcams still in stock at Amazon shortly to help you stay in touch with your loved ones over the coming weeks.
