Do you know which industries were affected when Apple launched its iPhone in 2007?
- PCs, an industry affected by the iPhone was the computer market, due to the versatility of the iPhone over the years the sales of the PC market were falling over time.
- Film and television, the iPhone created a mobile platform for video delivery, and since 2007 all major film and television studios have been forced to expand their distribution methods to include download and streaming services to mobile devices.
- The video game market, the iPhone expanded the market for mobile games and created a new category: games based on touch.
- Today’s health industry, one can use an iPhone to monitor various fitness metrics, as well as access detailed health information, connect with professionals, and even receive health advice virtually anytime, anywhere. any place.
Several industries were affected by the iPhone and several of them benefited from this new technology. Disruptive technologies have this characteristic, they encourage the appearance of new products and services, changing the way of interacting in the world.
According to recent data from Accenture, it is estimated that 71% of companies are on the verge of being interrupted by some new innovation:
In fact, disruptive innovation often arises in two scenarios:
• New solutions to existing problems or challenges that have been difficult to solve.
• New competitors in highly profitable sectors with historically high returns.
The emergence of technological advancements can also be accelerated through various factors, including significant demographic changes, sustained economic growth, innovative political environments and urgent social needs.
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Technology adoption is accelerating
Revolutionary inventions have always sent blast wave effects throughout society, but today those waves travel faster than ever.
Moore’s Law, the claim that the number of components in a dense integrated circuit (i.e. transistors, resistors, diodes, or capacitors) will double every year, while at the same time being cheaper, is a factor.
The technology adoption rate is also accelerating. For example, consider mobile phone, due to price and ease of use, number of US adults. USA With a cell phone it increased from 10% in 1994 to more than 96% in 2019.
Innovative investment opportunities
Where innovation leads, investment generally follows. However, predicting which technological innovations will have a lasting impact on society has often been difficult.
Instead, investors can track the broader trends that often lead to technology disruptions, to unlock potential opportunities:
Research and development funding:
The number of investments in emerging technologies is growing. Acquisitions of technology companies also totaled $ 278 billion for the second quarter of 2018, an increase of 50% over the previous year.
The future workforce:
Historically, productivity gains have increased the demand for more skilled labor. Technical and social skills are top priorities for employers for their future teams, and the number of hours workers spend using technology skills is projected to increase by 55% from 2016 to 2030.
Changes in consumer demand:
Businesses aware of these factors should seek to incorporate innovations into their platforms for a more customer-centric experience.
Social needs:
Persistent global social problems, such as access to better health care, are drivers of innovative solutions that offer a better quality of life. The Symphony Post-Acute Network leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to offer personalized healthcare to more than 80,000 patients, reducing costs by more than $ 13,000 per patient.
What are the new technologies that can generate new investment niches in the near future?
Cybersecurity:
51% of companies see cybersecurity as the biggest challenge when starting the digital transformation.
In addition, 61% of CEOs believe that computer security threats are one of the big problems that can slow down the expansion of a business.
Virtual reality and augmented reality:
Virtual reality tries to replace our environment with another generated digitally, that is, it creates a reality that does not exist. An example would be the famous Oculus Rift, a virtual reality glasses focused on video games.
On the other hand, augmented reality does not try to replace our environment, but “perfects” it by adding layers of information to the physical plane we are on. An example is Google Glass that allows us to check the weather, read emails or make purchases without leaving the real world.
Blockchain:
The Blockchain is a distributed database, that is, a set of related databases that are in different locations, so that a person from anywhere can access the data of the entire network as if they were in one single database on your computer.
In the Blockchain it is only possible to add new information, there is no possibility to modify existing data or to delete it.
This is the type of database used in the field of cryptocurrencies but it has many more applications, for example, automatic execution of contracts, monitoring in the supply chain, automated security, home rental, voting online, etc.
Automation and robotics:
The great development of robotics in recent years has sparked the interest of large companies to improve the efficiency and productivity of their business models. It is not a secret that we are heading to a world where robots will play an increasingly important role and in certain industries their growth potential will be even greater.
Autonomous vehicles:
Autonomous or self-driving vehicles are capable of imitating human handling and control capabilities. For this they use new technologies such as lasers, radar, the global positioning system or computer vision.
Experts believe that this technology will consolidate much sooner than we think and that it will bring about legislative and infrastructure changes that are difficult to predict.
Nanotechnology:
Scientists use nanotechnology to create inexpensive materials and systems, but with unique properties. Its potential to change the economy has been verified by universities and governments around the world.
Nanomaterials are already present in almost a thousand objects of daily use: car parts, tennis rackets, waterproof fabrics, etc. But possibly its most interesting current applications are in the field of medicine and the pharmaceutical industry
