25 percent of projects are delayed as a result

But companies are still unprepared.

Large customers are willing to enter into long-term agreements to ensure supply continuity.

Last year was a record setter, and growth will continue thanks to lower pricing and shortages following Thai floods.

PC prices could rise as a result of hard-drive supply shortages, IDC said.

The tech world is abuzz again with worries about shortages of popular products, this time because of an explosion at a Chinese factory that killed two people.

For all the fanfare surrounding the launch of Intel's Centrino Atom chip package at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, there was a notable shortage of new products based on the chips, apart from a few concept designs rolled out for the occasion.

Nintendo DS was the top selling system last month shifting an impressive 1.5 million units according to NPD. Wii followed with its best month ever selling a hefty 981,000 units, despite shortages. Saying it's good times at Kyoto headquarters is an understatement.

Taiwan's Asustek Computer complained on Tuesday of a shortage of Intel central processing units (CPUs) for laptop PCs, but said it didn't expect the problem to affect its sales.

A spike in PC demand has created a new shortage of Intel Corp. chipsets, potentially reviving an issue blamed for causing the company to lose market share to rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) last year.

The soaring popularity of MP3 music players is driving demand for NAND flash memory chips faster than suppliers can keep up.