Coronavirus, or the novel COVID-19, continues to unleash misery upon mankind today. With over 4,907,135 cases around the world and more than 3.18 lakh people dead, it has become a harsh reality of our lives in no time.

Speaking of businesses around the world, the impact of COVID-19 has been staggering in verticals like travel, manufacturing, and technology. While there are devastating outcomes notable in the travel and manufacturing industries, the tech world is one where there have been fairly mixed results recorded so far.

While newer and better opportunities have come up for industries like telecommunication and mobile apps, supply chains around the world when it comes to the manufacturing of smartphones have taken a serious hit. Hence, to shed some light on the effects of Coronavirus on industries like mobile apps and telecommunications, here’s our detailed take on how the tech world has been affected by the ongoing pandemic.

Ways in Which the Coronavirus is Impacting the Technological World

Have a look at some ways in which the pandemic is set to impact or has impacted the tech world for good or bad.

1. Disruption of the Global Supply Chain

The supply chain was amongst the first to be hit by the pandemic when it first struck China. Factories and manufacturing plants got shut as the country headed for a lockdown.

Besides, here’s what you need to know about the disruption of the supply chain due to Covid-19.

Now here’s a thing, while car manufacturing companies took a hit, smartphone manufacturers were also considered amongst the prominent ones to shut their factories. Taking an example of Apple alone, the company’s primary manufacturer, Foxconn, shut down its factories in China which resulted in the lack of iPhone supply, a crisis highly unpredictable for Apple.

2. Rise in the Need for 5G

Soon after remote working became the norm of the hour, the rise in the demand for the 5G network saw a massive upsurge. Various ventures and companies around the world started looking for ways of enhancing their digital communications as caution mounted in the wake of COVID-19. While 5G holds the future of businesses, trends around this continue to shape even today. In fact, enterprise operations like telehealth and teleconferencing are the frontrunners in this race. Here’s what you need to know about them.

  • Telehealth- One of the primary developments we’ve seen in the wake of Coronavirus has been the immense surge in the popularity of remote consulting. Today, healthcare enterprises and hospital chains around the world are shifting to 5G-powered systems and mobile apps for healthcare consultations as against the traditional methods of on-field consultation. In fact, this has come up as a potential opportunity for mobile app developers to try out their hands in developing remote healthcare consultation apps.
  • Telecommunication- Right since the onset of COVID-19 when work from home became the need of the hour, telecommunication has been a go-to pick for ventures to stay connected while working remotely. This has led to a serious surge in the demand for apps like Zoom and Google Hangout. In fact, according to Zoom, the number of its global users spiked up to 200 million within a short span of 2 months. Have a look.

3. A Surge in the Imminence of VR

Virtual Reality has been one of the top-grossing technological trends for quite some time now, and in the wake of COVID-19, this trend is set to go up. Companies like Amazon and Google today that lay immense focus on collaborative efforts and hands-on training are now finding disruptions in their smooth operations.

However, this also opens up opportunities and can be the impetus for companies to implement VR on a much larger scale. In fact, according to a Perkins Coie survey, nearly 49% of ventures around the world today believe that Virtual Reality and other such tools can be a perfect mirror to real-world training sessions for employees. Not only this, but the employees can sit in the comfort of their homes during the pandemic times and get virtual hands-on training experience similar to that of on-field training.

4. Growth in the Demand for E-learning Platforms

E-learning, one of the most notable takes from technology today is gaining vital imminence, especially at a time when the world educational institutions are shut due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

In fact, e-learning is an industry that is estimated to reach a market size worth $375 billion by the year 2026. Have a look.

Now let’s take an example of Google Classroom for instance. An app developed by the tech giant Google itself, has recorded a staggering upsurge in its popularity and has become one of the most preferred apps in countries like Italy and South Korea within a span of a few days.

5. Covid-19 to Create a Digital Divide

Now here’s a thing, the digital divide is something that has already existed in the corporate world. While there are ventures that prefer spending less on expanding their digital teams, others lay additional emphasis on expanding their digital reach.

As in the case of COVID-19, some ventures have laid-off their entire digital teams as part of the cost-cutting process. While On the other hand, there are companies that have, in fact, expanded their digital teams to continue their services seamlessly. Hence, the widening of the digital divide is evident in the wake of COVID-19.

Summing Up

While the Coronavirus continues to hit world economies hard, technology has come up as mankind’s ace card in running businesses in the wake of the pandemic. Although there are disruptions in the global supply chain due to Covid-19, promising signs are still visible in the tech world in the form of rising VR fame and surge in e-learning popularity.

However, with that being said, what happens in the next few days remains to be seen. If you want to share your opinion on the same feel free to connect with us or leave your thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on the tech world in the comments section below.

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