No one was prepared for a global pandemic like Coronavirus. Since the initial outbreak of the virus hit China, the world started to feel the tremors. Almost every country on the globe is affected by Coronavirus, and it is continuously spreading over the world. People are indeed suffering due to Coronavirus in different ways. From the general public to industries, everyone is sharing their portion of losses. The global pandemic is continuously increasing, with a staggering rate of cases, and the number is continuously staggering and further worsening the situation even further. With social distancing and lockdown situations, industries are drenched in losses.

When it comes to measuring the industrial losses, every sector has its story of grief to tell. Even, telecommunications and consumer technology sectors have started to feel the effects of Coronavirus. During the initial outbreak in the Wuhan City of China, only the global supply chain was primarily affected, but, as the situation started to get worse, the loss became far-reaching and volatile across the industries.

How is Coronavirus Impacting The Telecommunications And Tech Industry?

Just like any other prominent global industry, the telecommunications sector has been going through the consequences of the Coronavirus. The first hit for the industry was the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress, a seminar in the telecommunications sector. Due to the mass lockdown, employees are compelled to turn to remote working, and the sector has started to miss the prominent opportunities and witness delays in the initiatives. Though the telecommunication industry is coping with the distress and trying its way around, there are several ways in which Coronavirus can possibly affect the industry in the coming years.

Here are a few ways in which Coronavirus can continue to impact the industry throughout the year-:

Missed Partnership Opportunities

As people are taking their work home, there are increased chances of missed opportunities. Over this short period of time, many important tech conferences had to be canceled that have resulted in huge losses. The major setback was the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress scheduled to happen in February. It is considered as the most significant event in the tech industry where companies share their innovations and engage in partnerships.

Apart from the Mobile World Congress, Facebook had to cancel the F8 Developer Conference Global Marketing Summit, Google had to postpone the Google Cloud Next, and IBM turned to live streaming for its developer’s conference. The cancellation of these events has set to a loss of $1 billion that can prove to be severe for the industries.

Highlight The Use of Virtual Reality in Business

The current pandemic has alarmed the big tech players in the market like Google, Microsoft, and Apple and compelled them to think about lasting and reliable tech solutions. It has become more than necessary for businesses to find sustainable solutions. It can be safely predicted that virtual reality can create a breakthrough for companies to steer through this tough phase.

New and grave drawbacks have been continuously emerging in the tech industry, and only virtual reality can prove to be a sustainable solution to all the problems. Sales and training can be made simpler with the help of virtual reality. So, in the coming years, companies should concentrate more on virtual reality to strengthen their functions.

Need For 5G Technology

5G is known for its lightning-fast speed and instantaneous communications. As people are increasingly shifting towards remote working, the need for 5G has been augmented even more further. Organizations have been thinking about adopting 5G technology in the long term. There are two key areas: telehealth, teleconferencing which has become critical for operations amongst this pandemic. People highly dependent on these areas will further strengthen the need for 5G. Telehealth is the ideal solution for efficiently combating the Coronavirus.

The broad reach of 5G expanded the range of medical expertise and services. Teleconferencing has also been increased in this lockdown period that would require massive bandwidth. Employees gradually depend on the teleconferencing tool that will eventually require 5G connectivity in the home. More IT solutions are needed to improve the tech scenario and facilitate better communications.

Disruption in The Supply Chain

The major impact of Coronavirus that has shaken the industries is definitely the disruption in the supply chain. Originated from the Wuhan city in China, Coronavirus started to showcase its impact from December last year when major supply markets were shut down. As the virus began to expand its severity, major manufacturing factories started to shut down partially and completely. Many of the tech industry also suffered from a shortage of supply. For instance, Apple was hugely affected as there was a scarcity of iPhone supply which led to a delay in the shipment of the phones.

Many of the companies had contingency plans that helped them to steer through the situation. The rapid increase in the cases and the severity of the condition further makes it hard to detect which industry is the least affected. Though industries have been taking initiatives to keep things under control, it is hard to tell how much time it will take to recover from the losses. According to industry estimates, it will take at least 2-3 years to gain back the lost sales and improve the manufacturing processes.

Investment in Smart City

It has been witnessed that cities with smart technology had the potential to mitigate the effects of Coronavirus. It clearly states that there’s a dire need for developing smart cities as much as possible. It is the only sustainable way to mitigate the risk and create a safe environment for the coming generation. Smart cities are already under the plan and with the current pandemic situation, the investments are more likely to grow throughout the year. Not just smart cities, smart technologies are also being used to overcome the difficulties in this time of crisis.

For instance, China police are using thermal sensor drones to detect people walking in the crowd with a fever. The South Korean government has launched an app that connects the self-quarantine people with the caseworkers to get a better idea regarding their situation and monitor their progress as well. The Australian government has released a chatbot to answer the queries and questions from the general public regarding the spread. Not just these countries, plenty of other countries have taken their share of preventive measures to keep things under control. Smart technologies are going to be a prominent part of our lives post-corona period as well.

The Bottom Line

Coronavirus is drastically affecting the industries across the globe. Telecommunications and tech industries are also among those affected sectors that are facing losses. Many of the tech projects, proposals, and initiatives have come to a standstill resulting in humongous losses. Though the solutions for the impact are far-reaching, industries have been trying to find achievable and efficient solutions.

Smart cities are considered to be a significant investment in these times of crisis. It has been estimated that investment in the smart city will mount up to $295 million by 2025. It is predicted that initiatives like smart cities will be an effective solution to deal with pandemics like this. The above mentioned were five major impacts Coronavirus can have on the tech industries throughout the year.