I don't know if this is a smoke screen to cover up problems, but laptops have all miniaturized and prorietary components. Think about the fans / cooling parts, power suppliers, motherboards etc., it is a very different component landscape than for desktops, which use very standardized and exchangeable parts. I would not be surprised if this shortage was true. I needed to buy a new laptop and almost hit the BUY button last week at Dell, when I saw that the lead time is 2 months!! My company's IT confirmed that my work replacement will also be about 6 months late, they are fulfilling orders from Q1 and Q2 of 2021 right now. I canceled the order and got something off the shelf from MSI at Best Buy. Not my first choice, but a close second and good enough considering that my old one died and I needed something now.