Trends of Big Tech Post 2020

It feels like 2020 should end soon, given the pandemic-stressed and political conflicts. However, the year still has two months to be over.

Nevertheless, putting 2020 behind might be healthy. It's been a disruptive year for high tech, as well as other industries. On the other hand, this year has proven a highly public ground for cloud, streaming, artificial intelligence (AI), and other pillars of 21st-century civilisation.

Tech as the Helm of the Economy during the Pandemic

As the United States prepares for the upcoming US presidential election, trends will shape the technology landscape for the rest of this decade, regardless of who makes a place in the White House after the polls on November 3.

Coronavirus pandemic may last longer than people would like to believe. If social distancing, quarantining, and lockdowns continue, it will hammer the global economy for at least another six to twelve months. However, the tech industry has already found out ways to keep operational despite these obstacles. The customers now rely closely on the cloud, streaming, robotics, remote collaboration, smart sensors, and other digital technologies to stay alive being house arrest.

In 2021, enterprise technology professionals are expected to adjust their strategies with one eye on COVID-19 trends and the other one on the digital transformation initiatives. Predictive containment management may become a central element of every administrator's high-tech toolkit.

Socially distanced living will retain long past the coronavirus pandemic. People are expected to practice social distance in most public interactions for at least three to five years. The global culture is getting fitted to personal protective equipment, biosensors, ubiquitous, contactless interactions, sanitization-intensive maintenance, remote collaboration, and other changes in how we live and work. Most of our new lifestyles depend on artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services, mobile devices, robotics, and other technological platforms.

The tech vendors such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have benefitted from this trend and provide a full cloud-to-edge environment that enables a seamless 'new normal' lifestyle.

Furthermore, effective COVID-19 vaccines will come to the market after R&D and clinical trials. Hope for a quick resolution to the pandemic crisis will diminish as the grinding process of developing and testing the COVID-19 vaccine continues. Considering the history of vaccines for past pandemics like Ebola, it may take at least two to three years to develop an effective COVID-19 vaccine. However, the tech sector is equally trying to develop vaccines for COVID-19 using AI, high-performance computing, quantum technology, and other advanced tools.

As the human race sails through false hopes and counterproductive approaches for treatment and cure, the tech sector's solutions may become a lifeline for distinguishing what is fruitful and what's not.

Political and Regulatory Pressure will build on Big Tech

One big trump card in Big Tech's future may be legal and regulatory pressure to divest them of assets that offer them what some call an unfair, monopolistic advantage in the core markets.

A recent investigation by the US House of Representatives antitrust subcommittee finds that Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook have become the kind of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil baron and railroad tycoons. The subcommittee pointed out Amazon's dominance in e-commerce, Google's in search and advertising, Apple's in both apps and mobile content, and Facebook's social networking.

There's no natural way to partition these vendors to achieve the common objective. Requiring Amazon to descendant its third-party seller marketplace will not lessen the dominance of its direct first-party sales online retailing site. Spilling Google's search assets from its mobile OS, cloud computing, digital advertising, and office productivity assets wouldn't shake its momentum in any other segment. Mandating Facebook sell off Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger products will not weaken its hold on its core social networking users. Opening up Apple's devices to other app stores will not wither the first-to-market advantages of Apple-founded services on those devices.

If Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and other Big Tech vendors can find a shareholder rationale to partition their respective businesses in the coming years, they will perhaps waste zero time putting it into effect. If doing this helps to keep regulators from breathing down their necks, all will get better.