The ongoing disasters in Japan could lead to shortages of tech gadgets for American consumers -- and headaches for Silicon Valley companies.
Japan is a key producer -- and in some cases the dominant one -- of many components at the heart of high-tech items such as PCs, smartphones and Apple's iPad. Production and distribution of many of those parts has been disrupted by the earthquake, tsunami, nuclear crisis and electrical blackouts that have roiled Japan since last week.
Just how significant those disruptions will prove to be is still a matter of educated guesswork. But they probably will affect a broad swath of the tech industry, some industry analysts said, and will grow worse the longer the crisis goes on.
"We've never had this much of the electronics supply chain impacted in our history," said Dale Ford, an analyst who covers the semiconductor industry and supply chain for market research firm IHS iSuppli. "There's nothing even to compare it to."
One problem local tech companies face is uncertainty over which factories and industries are affected and to what degree.
"A lot of (valley) companies are trying to assess what's going on" in Japan, said James Brehm, senior consultant for the mobile industry at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. "They're trying to get in contact with organizations that are disrupted over there."
'Too early to tell'