The recent outbreak of coronavirus has now converted into a global pandemic. The virus has infected over 20 lac people all around the world. Out of which, more than 5 lac people have recovered and around 137,000 have died. Many nations have declared lockdowns due to the outbreak. And that has badly affected almost all the industries, let alone the tech industry. Many major meetings have been canceled in order to maintain social distancing and companies might be missing huge opportunities because of that.
The biggest example of this is the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress. The largest mobile conference was supposed to be happening in Barcelona, earlier this year. But due to coronavirus pandemic, the conference got called off. Also, most of the tech industry organizations have declared work from home for their employees. This has put a halt to many connection opportunities for them. Many other chains like production have been stopped too.
The pandemic has bought both for the tech industry, break in the regular processing and emergence of new ideas. Many current circumstances have made organizations realize what they can provide to their customers and employees in the future. So that if any such situation happens, people will have the better tech to their rescue. Some of the noticeable effects of the coronavirus outbreak on the tech industry are:
Table of Contents
Launch Delays:
Several tech manufacturing units are based in China. And most of them are mainly established in Wuhan, which is the coronavirus epicenter. As the cure for the virus has not been found yet, so it cannot be said until when these tech industry units will remain closed. The lockdown’s adverse effects can be seen soon in the supply chains. Because employees would not be going to the factories, which will stop the productions. Further to the already manufactures products, their delivery would not be possible. So the launch of these products will be delayed for a certain time. One of the most popular examples of this is the delay in the launch of new iPhones, which were planned to be launched in March 2020.
Not only the mobile industry but the gaming industry is also hit with the pandemic. Many new gaming equipment launches have been delayed due to this. Because of this delay, many major companies will not be able to introduce people to their new products. Which is why people would be sticking to their old devices for a longer time. This will also lower down the stock values of these companies, which can affect them badly in the near future.
Delay In New Services:
Wuhan is also the mass supplier of optics and fibers. These are extremely crucial components for the telecommunication networks. And because of the major lockdowns, the networks will not be receiving their supplies for some time now. That will delay the implementation of new services like 5G.
Even though the demand for the same has been increased due to the ‘Work from home’ notice, the networks will not be able to provide their customers with it. Because of the low supply of components.
Missed Opportunities:
Along with MWC, other organizations like Facebook, Google and IBM too canceled their large scale conferences. If things would have been normal and these conferences would have taken place as planned, the tech industry would have seen innovations. This is because the large scale conferences give a platform to various organizations to make new contacts and bring up innovations with various business partnerships.
Though some of the conferences were held with the help of live streaming. But no online platform can match the exposure that is provided by the in-person events. This is because the attendees are not able to network with other people on online platforms. So some effects will surely be seen in the industry of these conference cancellations.
Increased Demand For Remote Working Tools:
As all, small to big scale companies have declared ‘work from home’ for their employees, the demand for certain tools has increased. For example, the video conferencing app Zoom has seen a sudden boost in its user base. Similarly, many other tools for Remote-working are in demand. This new pandemic situation has rung a bell for the companies, as most of them are stating that work from home culture is serving pretty well for them.
This might increase the future hope for the same and many companies will look up to better tools for their employees. The demand for VR can increase too. As it can serve as a crucial tool for training the employees from their home itself. They can easily be given a workplace setting so that they will be able to learn better.
This will also increase the demand for cloud services because everyone will be accessing the data remotely. So either the companies will set up their clouds or the tech industry will see new cloud services emerging soon.
Growth Of The Tech Industry:
The tech industry has been serving pretty well from the last one or two decades. It has provided solutions to almost all the other industries, either by automating their processes or by giving them better tools. But with the coronavirus pandemic, the need for new tech has emerged. For example, doctors need tools that can help them in examining a patient without coming in contact with them.
Countries like China, South Korea, and Australia are already using the latest tech like drones and smartphone apps to keep track of their citizens. But this would not be enough. The government will make sure that new tech is produced, which will help them better in any such situation in the future.
Conclusion:
These were the top five effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the tech industry. Some many other problems and requirements have emerged with this virus outbreak like a halt in the delivery services. People want this pandemic to end soon. As the sooner this pandemic will end, the better recovery can be made by the industries.
