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."

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.

Availability of the iPhone 13 has improved as of November 20th with plenty of inventory in stock for the iPhone 13 base model. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max shipping dates are pushed into December. Samsung is being held back by supply issues with the Galaxy S21 Ultra was the manufacturer's top seller in October and 25 of the 40 carrier reps surveyed said that the model was among their top three sellers. 17 of the 40 put the Galaxy Z Flip 3 among their three top-selling models.

The iPhone made up 72% of Verizon's October smartphone sales, 76% at AT&T, and 66% at T-Mobile. The iPhone 13 Pro Max was the top iPhone 13 model responsible for 20% of sales at Verizon and AT&T and 13% at T-Mobile. The iPhone 13 mini continues to do poorly at Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile where it had 3%, 5%, and 3% of October sales at the three carriers, respectively.

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

Samsung had a 23% share of handset sales last month at Verizon, 20% at AT&T, and 26% at T-Mobile. With Samsung models in short supply, T-Mobile has six OnePlus models available and it is T-Mobile's top Android alternative to Samsung.

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.

For the November Wave7 survey, the 40 reps were interviewed at 40 carrier stores (15 AT&T, 13 Verizon, and 12 T-Mobile) during the period from 10/28-11/3.

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.