Millions across the globe are feeling the effects of the corona virus outbreak.The stock market has plummeted, store shelves are often bare of essential items, large events like the South by Southwest festival in Austin Texas in the Unites States have been canceled entirely, but some effects are less apparent here are a few ways the corona virus outbreak might affect us in the months to come :
Specifically in the world of technology depending on which side of the tech industry they exist. the corona virus outbreak is either a boon or the bane of a company’s business as companies urged their employees to work from home. Those employees turn to apps like zoom for videoconferencing and slack for communication and as you can imagine zoom and slack are doing quite well now.
Likewise as people opt to, or, are forced to stay home they may turn to delivery services like door – post mates and instacart to get food and supplies without having to risk exposing themselves. These tech companies also continue to thrive naturally as those bound to their homes seek to find entertainment to pass the long hours streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime video, and YouTube, will likely see an increase in use movie theaters. On the other hand will likely see reduced occupancy potentially sending a message to Hollywood that it may want to consider switching gears also as travel is declining, booking sites like Booking, Expedia, kayak and Travelocity are seeing a sharp decrease in new business, and a notable uptick in cancellations.
Coronavirus will also have an effect on the tech hardware business and it all comes down to a term we rely on every day without necessarily understanding it or being actively aware of it. Supply chain the brand name on the front of a phone or laptop or TV only tells you who designed it. Assembling all the parts is a complicated web of contractors subcontractors and warehouses which go completely unseen. For example there is indeed a factory that makes TVs but that factory doesn’t necessarily make the TV screen, the screen is made by another factory the processing chip is made at a different factory, and the power supply may be made at yet another factory. you get the idea! It’s all interconnected if just one factory or supplier is shut down the entire system can grind to a halt.
Apple has already indicated it will likely not be able to make a sufficient supply of its smartphones for the year, we didn’t expect that to be true of other smartphone makers as well and we’ll likely see a shorter supply of other goods, like TVs, washers dryers, refrigerators, computers and many other items. The shortfall won’t be felt immediately but as warehouses empty and the cargo ships currently sailing stop arriving as frequently we can expect to see a shortage of goods and rising prices as demand increases is the specter of a shortage of major appliances and phones likely to lead to the same sort of panic, that has store shelves bare of toilet paper!
Hopefully not these are high cost items that perhaps less prone to be hoarded but as we all endure this coronavirus event we should be prepared for our typical consumer based behaviors to change at least a little bit if not a lot.
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