Let’s weigh the good and the bad impacts of Covid-19 in the IT sector.
It should not be a surprise when you hear that Covid-19 has affected all the industries and sectors of various niches. The implications witnessed all around the world from putting a halt to all operations, big or small, the pandemic has turned a blind eye to everything and beyond. While the economy has regressed and now, gradually attempting to heal from the harrowing effects it had faced for the past six to seven months.
The IT sector has also fallen victim to the pandemic such that the global industry of (IT) was predicted to witness a decline in the overall revenue by up to 3% to 4% at the beginning of lockdown. Although not all implications have been noticed as that harrowing as expected, and not as outrageous as compared to other sectors, we can dissect the impacts into negative and positive implications.
According to CompTIA in November 2019, the global IT industry remained on a pace to reach $ 5.2 trillion marks in 2020.
The US held a 32% share in the global IT market. It was also predicted that it would witness a 30% contraction in the second quarter in 2020.
Negative Implications
Loss of opportunity
Many companies in the IT sector has faced a loss of opportunity because of Work From Home (WFH) or remote working which has led to a loss of opportunity for companies who have dealers outside their country. We can cite the example of Apple Inc. estimated to have lost over 10% of shares from the market because of a decline in manufacturing iPhones because of the obvious reason; the components of an iPhone are manufactured in China and then shipped.
Therefore, the halt in livelihood has caused a decrease in the availability of iPhones in the market.
Many prestigious tech conferences like Mobile World Congress MWC Barcelona, Google News Initiative Summit, Cisco Live Melbourne and many more events were cancelled while some were shifted to an online platform. All these tech conferences could have been an opportunity for many start-ups and established companies to collaborate, make way for partnerships and an opportunity for young talents to get an exposure plus had the potential to create definite networking.
The implications of these cancelled conferences cost an estimated loss of $1 Billion
Positive Implications
The IT industry is expected to grow despite all the tribulations as it is expected to project from $131Billion to $295 Billion by 2025 because of increasing demand for software integrations and social media platforms, especially, video calling mediums like Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams etc.
A move towards a Smarter World
The technology sector has also seen a rise in upgrades like 5G technology because of the need for faster access to data.
Many applications have been launched like the “Arogya Setu” App which is used to make the citizens aware if they are within a distance of an infected person or area.
China also used drones to keep track of infected patients in quarantine. The telecom provider in China designed a 5G powered system that connects the physicians from West China Hospital to 27 hospitals in the area itself. This enabled them to consult and communicate with each other and also kept track of emergency patients.
The Australian government also launched a chatbot that gave transparent and updated information on the situation, while answering their queries. This move has avoided unnecessary hoax to spread in the community.
What to expect in the long run?
- Demand for cloud infrastructure services and specialised software.
- Increased demand for communications equipment and telecom services for continued coordination between employees, teachers, students and parents.
- IT departments will enhance future business continuity by being approached to set up a resilient and secure network, IT security etc.
- 5th Generation(5G) network deployments and adoption of 5G equipment.
