Outlook December Digital Magazine

43 December 2020
TECH BOOM DUE TO PANDEMIC
Increase in innovation is fostered during this increasingly
digital era
photo courtesy of Jeswin Thomas
In the midst of the pandemic, technology
companies are continuing to invent.
By the time we’ve adjusted to COVID,
the world will be revolutionized. As we’re
all making the switch to online video calls
and asynchronous work, the current times
may be giving way to a new generation of
innovators. This new generation is inspired
by seeing companies continue to succeed
and innovate, even during this pandemic.
In fact, leading companies like Apple,
Xbox, and Playstation are still releasing
new products and making a profit. This
goes to show that technology based companies
have surpassed expectations for
growth throughout the pandemic and don’t
seem to be stagnating yet.
While other industries have been greatly
affected by the switch to contactless living,
technology companies have seen an
increase in sales or revenue. Amazon, the
prominent online retailer, reported almost
a 40% increase in sales compared to their
last quarter. Likewise, Apple received $65
million dollars in revenue on their newest
iPhone. As Luca Maestri, Apple’s finance
chief, said “There is lots going on here, and
everything is going incredibly well”. Clearly,
these companies aren’t struggling during
these tumultuous times. Not to mention, the
gaming industry is surging. With the closure
of live entertainment, the amount of
people buying game consoles has significantly
increased. Even with the ongoing
pandemic, Nintendo expects to sell 24
million of its Switch games consoles in the
year ending March 2021, an increase from
their forecast of 19 million.
Even with the initial shock of COVID
behind us, companies still want to reduce
physical contact. In particular, use of the
cloud, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality
are areas where there’s potential for
economic growth. Innovators believe that
improved VR could provide better web
conferencing and groupware. Although
there’s also a demand for AI to become
more efficient, it still takes humans to operate
it during unexpected difficulties. Most
importantly, it’s not a single technology
that creates an improvement, it’s how people
learn and adapt to new technologies and
use them efficiently and constructively.
However, this isn’t the first time companies
thrive during difficult times. Apple,
Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Uber
were all launched during economic downturns.
That could be why a recession may
sometimes be considered “a necessary
cleansing of the deadwood that allows the
strongest companies to grow, which creates
new space for innovative startups”. Some
owe their success to choices made during
the Great Depression. A few of those companies
became household names, such as
Disney, FedEx, Trader Joe’s, and more.
And although the pandemic caused unemployment
rates to increase, a fair amount
of “pandemic founders” were people who
were laid off and subsequently motivated to
seize the moment and start their own businesses.
Umesh Padval, the venture partner
with Thomvest Ventures, elaborates “investment
in innovation typically declines
as investors become very cautious. This
creates the Darwinian theory of survival of
the fittest. Lots of undifferentiated companies
can’t raise money and file bankruptcy
or they get sold. However, the best companies
with solid teams and differentiated
platforms, survive and get funded.”
The abrupt switch to digital teleworkingfrom
home means there are a multitude of
new ideas and approaches to expand on. As
of now, innovators are still working on the
next essential piece of technology; hopefully,
it will improve the quality of life of
people struggling at the moment.
lucy holt | staff writer