Bigger Tech and Bigger Spends

Exploring the world of tech is a great journey with gadgets and inventions appearing across all sectors to bring convenience, efficiency and sometimes just pure novelty to consumers. I’ve talked about how the mobile user market has shifted its expectations along with the technology and how spending more on pieces of technology has shifted into a place of acceptance due to features and utility. Phones can do so much more now and committing to multi -year long contracts for the latest and most powerful handsets has become common in many countries. Technology is growing and the culture that surrounds it is ever more encompassing. Movement to the age of Digital, and marriage between tech, consumer needs and services has created an ecosystem that demands an even greater volume of spending.

Much of the new emerging technologies are strategically created to attract buyers of many demographics, integrating into daily life where it has almost become a necessity to spend on essential tech. Technology is set to continue its rapid growth in the next few years and research from the International Data Corporation (IDC) states that new technologies will be the main bulk of spending in years to come with a projected growth of over 2 x GDP. Investment from governments and firms to bring out the latest and greatest to attract consumer attention will be essential. We can already see it has been a great race with countries like China racing ahead in Telecom services, 5G is only a precursor to new technology adoption that will sweep the globe one innovation at a time.

The IDC report outlines rapid decline in legacy technology and this is evident in the phasing out of old technologies in favour of the new. Much like any operating system, technology moves with the interest of utility and security. Despite being so diverse, the main drivers of our current tech generation revolves around social media, big data analytics, mobile computing and cloud. Social media stands out to me as a key driving factor as it is very much the core of many interactions between companies and consumers. It won’t be long before other platforms emerge and mature for similar functionality, connecting people and consumer markets (Steem is a prime candidate). Interestingly, the initial gap between technology adoption that exists will be expected to close and this may be exactly what we see in the field of social, blockchain and decentralization.

Perhaps one of the most anticipated notions of reasons to spend more on technology is the emphasis of creating ‘frictionless’ experiences where physical and digital experiences blend and merge. Enhancing an experience for a little extra cost from many people piles up and it is the direction of many successful businesses have chosen to pursue. Convenience and perks from an Amazon Prime subscription or on demand streaming from services like Spotify, Netflix and Hulu. Such services have also enhanced the mobile market with multi-platform presence. With the arrival of electric cars and even video games being featured in the latest Tesla update, it’s clear that addons and subscriptions are a model that will continue to focus on providing better quality of life to potential consumers. If companies continue to provide technology along with seamless experiences, consumers will continue to see justifiable spend. With trade wars and tech races, it will be interesting to see which nations pull ahead in spending and payback in the years to come.

Lockhart Tech Blogs

https://www.idc.com/promo/global-ict-spending/forecast

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/consumer-tech-spending-to-top-2-trillion-by-2023-thanks-to-smart-home-devices-and-on-demand-services/