After the year 2020 and the pandemic that ensued, many sectors have been affected. Some for the worse while some for, the better. Corporations have had to change their ways and increase their efforts in a very short time, following consumer's needs that suddenly took a turn this year.
In the coming year, the world's biggest technology firms like Amazon, Apple, Google, etc., will have to face continuous hardships as the governments are keen on restricting their powers. Authorities, particularly in U.S. and U.K., are getting tougher concerning competition issues.
Recently, U.S. federal and other 45 state prosecutors filed a suit against Facebook for using underhanded measures to reduce competition in the market. Moreover, in December, the European Commission also brought its Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, which would completely change the way Big Techs are regulated. In the U.K., the Competition and Markets Authority recommended a legally enforceable code of conduct and proposed that a new Digital Markets Unit should be set up and given the power to impose penalties.
The tech sector is awaiting the policies that would be adopted by the administration of President-elect Joe Biden even though in the past Biden has been extremely critical of big tech firms, especially Facebook.
Similar to Tech Industry, Aerospace Industry has also gone through a horrible year. The airline sector, which is the industry's biggest customer, is either delaying or canceling its orders as air travel has almost collapsed with the ongoing pandemic.
Even after his, both the sectors are determined to overcome hurdles through Research and Development, particularly manufacturing planes that are small and have a less negative impact on the environment.
In consonance with this, Airbus (a major player in the market) has unveiled three concept hydrogen-powered designs. It is also looking at partnering with Germany, Spain, France, and Italy to develop the Medium Altitude Long Endurance unmanned aerial system. Also, Rolls – Royce is also about to bring an electric aircraft out in the market with the title Spirit of Innovation.
In the retail industry, times have been tumultuous due to the continuous lockdown and restrictions on movement. This also made the concept of online shopping grow by leaps and bounds. Experts believe that this change in the retail market may lead to new technology coming into the market by the time 2021 arrives. Such as Amazon, which is set to expand its Go store chain (shops that don’t have a checkout)? These stores will enable customers to speed up their shopping by just picking up the product and leaving the store. A combination of camera and AI ensures that their purchase is billed when they leave. Currently, there are 20 stores present in the US, and very soon, they might be built in the UK as well.
Work from Home became the norm in this on-going pandemic, and as per CCS Insights, 60% of business leaders in North America and Western Europe expect 25% of their workforce to start working from home. In line with this, Twitter and Dropbox made a policy for allowing their entire staff to work from home. Microsoft and Facebook are also determined to let their staff work from home.
The autonomous car industry saw an interesting development this year, with about 300 cars working as taxis in Arizona's streets. They could collect and drop passengers to their designated location without any human driver behind the wheel. This is known as Waymo One Service and is the first of its kind to be available for the general public. Now, rivals are also settled on joining the race. Cruise, owned by General Motors, is testing its services in San Francisco, where the street and weather layout is extremely challenging.