According to CTA’s Steve Koenig, VP of Research at CTA, in just fourteen days 250 million students shifted to on-line learning, and in 60 days, more than ten times the number of e-commerce deliveries arrived at the doorstep. In just five months, Disney+ reached fifty million subscribers (a feat that took Netflix took seven years to achieve) and one billion telemedicine appointments were made in 2020 (ten times the previous year).
Robots came to the rescue at CES 20201, cleaning and disinfecting, doing inventory and deliveries. Digital Therapeutics or DTx, is a new health and life science technology category to watch: products like Etsy for tracking seizures, wearables like Ora Ring, and Biobutton a coin-sized disposable medical grade device for tracking vital signs are examples of connected health monitoring and the sharing of medical data in real time that more than doubled in a year. While it may seem like science fiction, clinicians are using extended reality (XR) devices as touch free interfaces in sterile environments.
Digital upheaval swept across all areas of business and society in the spring of 2020, fundamentally changing how companies operate and deliver value to customers and how families shop, exercise and educate. These trends are expected to continue, as UVD robots roll down office corridors and department store isles, and autonomous vehicles hit the road or take flight.
Self-driving vehicles, side walk delivery robots and drone deliveries have all shot up in acceptance by the general public by over 25% in 2020. GM announced an all-electric future and the truck market is charging up. Cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X). C-V-2X is the new platform for vehicles to communicate with other cars, people and everything around them, providing non-line-of-sight awareness, thanks to capital investments sponsoring the roll out of 5G which has accelerated due to the pandemic as occupations increase and networks expand in capability.
According to the CTA, overall consumer tech industry grew in 2020 by 5.5% to $402B. and that consumers are growing their smart home around them. Audio, video, streaming, gaming services grew 31%, and $41B was spent on video services alone. Smart phones, which make up 25% of the market, is expected to grow by 5% in 2021 with growing adoption of 5G. Laptops were in high demand in 2020, $39B, 15% of all hardware sales. TV sales reached its second-best year ever. Connected health monitoring made $845M in 2020.
Summary of 2021 Trends:
Look for remote education for both instructors and students to incorporate AR/VR/Gamification into the learning pedagogy.
More attention on air and water quality technology in the home environment.
Expect the shift the on-line shopping to be long lasting, and more digital tools like contactless checkout that that bridge in-person and remote shopping experiences.
Consumers will be investing more in personal vehicles, particularly EVs and expect a stronger interest in travel technology than last year.
Reference: CTA, COVID-19 Impact on Technology Innovations: US & Europe, September 2020