Impact of Corona-virus on Tech giants of the world
In December 2019, a new disease was starting to affect many people in the city of Wuhan, located in Hubei province of China. This disease was causing pneumonia to the patients. No one could’ve imagined that, this was starting of a global pandemic, that humans never faced in recent years. The disease would go on to effect more 100,000 people around the world, and would cause more than 9,000 deaths in more than 150 countries. Many countries imposed long travel bans in an effort to contain the virus. This had major implications to all industries around the world.
In this article though, we would solely be looking at the impact of Corona-virus (also known as Covid-19) on the technological world, and how the biggest tech giants around the world tackled a global pandemic. We would see a lot of events being cancelled, postponed or shifted to online only in this article.
Apple
Apple’s WWDC 2020 event, which was scheduled to take place in June, was shifted to be online-only event due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Apple also closed its retail stores outside China, when number of cases started to drop in mainland China, but started rising in Europe and North America. Apple cancelled its 31 March event, where they intended to announce a newer, cheaper model for the iPhone, dubbed to be iPhone SE2 or iPhone 9, which was believed to be based on iPhone 8 platform. On 18th March, Apple announced new, and updated iPad Pros. Apple also updated its 13 inch MacBook Air with newer i3 processor and removing its butterfly keyboard. Apple released these devices online, without any public address. It is also believed that, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, Apple’s 2020 iPhones might get delayed by at least a month due to production shut-downs in China.
Samsung
Samsung had a bit of luck for their Unpacked event, which was held without any issues on February 11, where they unveiled new line of Galaxy S20 devices and a new fold-able smartphone, Galaxy Z Flip . However, the luck soon ran out for the company, as Covid-19 began spreading rapidly in South Korea, where the tech giant is based. It had to shut down its factory in South Korea, after a worker tested positive for Covid-19. This greatly impacted the supply of their new devices. Samsung also had to close its retail stores in US and Canada, after the disease began to spread rapidly in North America. Samsung launched a new device sanitizing initiative in many countries, where-in Galaxy smartphone owners would be able to sanitize their devices using UV rays, at a near retail store for free. Covid-19 impacted sales of newer Galaxy S20 devices compared to 2019, with sales being 50% lower. Samsung also donated almost $24.6 million to fight Covid-19 in South Korea.
Microsoft
Microsoft suffered a bit, since there were many events planned for them. MVP and MSP summits got postponed or converted to online only format, Microsoft Ignite Tour got cancelled in Asia due to the outbreak, and Microsoft Build summit was shifted to online-only from an offline event. Microsoft also closed its retail stores, after the pandemic started to accelerate in North America. Microsoft allowed its employees to work from home with the help of Microsoft Solutions like Microsoft Teams , as the Seattle region was one of the epicenters of disease in United States. The CEO, Satya Nadella addressed his employees, giving tips on how to work from home. Microsoft also built a Covid-19 tracker on its Bing platform, giving live count of cases around the world.
Google cancelled I/O 2020, which is one of the biggest event of the year for the tech giant, due to fears of Covid-19. The event was intended to take place in May. Google started developing a Covid-19 website, which would act as a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing. Google advised its employees in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa to work from home. CEO, Sundar Pichai requested its employees to contribute towards social distancing in order to contain the disease.
Amazon
Amazon had a big impact of Covid-19. Due to all panic buying, in the fear of lock-downs, Amazon faced great deal of difficulty in keeping the products in stock. Amazon workers also struggled to stay safe from Covid-19, as the disease spread accelerated in North America. These workers were mainly responsible for the supply chain network, and helped in delivery of products to the customers. Amazon faced challenge, as during this epidemic, Amazon’s supply chain was the only way that some people could get the required supplies during long stretches of lock-downs. Amazon told its office employees to work from home in order to practice social distancing.
Facebook had a great deal of responsibility in eliminating panic in this pandemic. Being the owner of not only Facebook, but also WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook had a responsibility on its shoulders to curb the spread of fake news on these platforms, which could cause panic among the population. Not only that, on these platforms, people also sometimes posts telling false information, and techniques to treat themselves. Facebook did its bid to curb these problems, and provide legitimate information to people using their service. Facebook also told its employees to work from home, in the fear of spread of Covid-19. Facebook also cancelled its F8 event, scheduled in San Jose, CA due to fears of Coronavirus.
Twitter also faced similar challenge to Facebook, of eliminating the fake news spreading on its platform. Twitter took extra steps to remove tweets that posed risk of contracting the virus to the reader. Twitter also clamped down on tweets, that intended to tell fake and ineffective ways to treat Covid-19. Twitter created specific guidelines, for its users to follow, while posting anything about the pandemic. Twitter also forced its 4,900 employees to work from home, to fight the spread of virus.
Other Brands
Netflix got immense surge in viewership, as during lock-downs, people spent their time on watching movies and shows, being streamed on Netflix platform. Oneplus shifted its launch of OnePlus 8 line devices to an online event, instead of offline event. Xiaomi, Oppo and Alibaba donated loads masks to help fight Covid-19 in China. Xiaomi also cancelled its on-ground events for the month of March. MWC 2020 (Mobile World Congress), that was scheduled to happen in the month of February, in Barcelona, got cancelled altogether, due to the fear of Covid-19. LG suspended production of its devices in South Korea for few days, due to the spread of Corona-virus.
Cancellations of these various tech events, and conferences have attributed to loss of revenues for the organisers, and local businesses of the host cities. Many companies like Google and Apple have tried to minimise these losses by donating money to local host cities.
At the moment of writing this article, the Covid-19 crisis is far from over. Many countries like Italy, France, Germany and Spain are under complete lock-down, while many others are partially. The global travel has almost stopped. Situation in China has started to improve. However, we are still far from the end. And each one us should understand the seriousness of the situation, and practice social distancing, and self sanitation in order to combat this pandemic.
