Yes, you've heard it all before: "The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a level of disruption that very few people could have anticipated when drawing their predictions for 2020..." My question is, with tech markets making remarkable gains, and further developments in augmented reality technology just around the corner, are we staring at a period of sustained success for the sector? It’s tricky to anticipate a global health crisis that would inadvertently accelerate our transition from office commutes to a and the widespread digital transformation that’s impacted virtually all of our lives. remote work culture The pandemic appears to have brought the future forward on an unprecedented scale. In April 2020, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella announced that the company had seen two years of digital transformation . If such a rate continued, 2021 would be looking more like 2030 in the accelerated timeline of tech. in two months (Image: ) Newsweek The industry has been further bolstered in 2020 by widespread investments - particularly from millennials who may be staring at some extra personal wealth in an era that’s free of expensive office commutes - in leading tech companies. With the arrival of vaccines and their rollout around the world, we may be looking forward to a future of the ‘new normal’ return to daily life, but could the momentum of tech stocks continue to gather pace as new developments in augmented reality come to fruition? The Arrival of Augmented Reality Significantly, the risks associated with travelling and the experiences from the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to greater levels of demand for solutions that could generate greater employee and business efficiency while guaranteeing their safety. software providers will continue to update and enhance their offerings, alongside new features and more strategic collaborations to bring greater levels of support, automation and large-scale deployment while offering businesses greater analytical tools for insights and agile decision making. Augmented reality Although enterprise AR hardware may not undergo dramatic shifts due to current offerings serving value use cases, consumer hardware is likely to be considerably more dynamic. Eric Abbruzzese, AR/VR Research Director at ABI Research believes that this will be a significant year for the future of reality technology: “2021 will be an important one for AR consumer hardware. nReal will ship its first headsets to consumers, while Mad Gaze will also look to expand,” . Abbruzzese explained “Also, Facebook is expected to roll out its AR smart glasses out of its Reality Labs initiative; Google may join as well after the acquisition of North, and with pressure from Facebook and others. The total AR market, including content and usage on mobile devices, will be strong. Media & entertainment and retail & commerce will lead in terms of growth and adoption rates due to the establishment of ‘at home entertainment’ and the rise of online shopping.” As major players in the world of tech look to acquire companies to develop their own entries onto the AR hardware market, we may well see their market position strengthened by their utilization of fledgeling technology. The Rise and Rise of Tech As technology actively reshapes business and everyday life, this trend is continuing to be reflected in their performance in the stock market. With more investors planning out their long-term growth and protection against inflation and the volatility of current economic conditions, tech stocks continue to offer some potentially attractive and they could help to influence the market’s overall performance. opportunities for investors One example of a stock that could benefit largely from this market growth and the further development of augmented reality technology is , which rallied as demand for the company’s display drivers has rebounded. These display drivers regulate the colors shown by pixels on display screens and as a result of an exceptional 2020, the semiconductor specialist’s share value is up significantly over its 2019 performance. Himax Technologies (HIMX) The third-quarter sales grew by as much as 46% year-over-year and its adjusted earnings per share rocketed by 281.6%. Although this earnings growth stems from a low basis of comparison, it’s still certainly been an impressive rebound. With augmented reality applications and 5G network support set to facilitate a new era of growth in mobile technology, Himax is likely to be an example of a beneficiary to the new screen and camera technologies that are soon to push the market forward. Development initiatives in AR may well become a catalyst for the stock itself, and it may be interesting to see how the company fares as these new developments in the technology become a reality. The Year of The Tech IPO Alongside the significant growth of the tech industry, another somewhat unexpected trend for 2020 has been the the market. With more tech companies looking to expand on what has been a watershed year, initial public offerings have been cropping up at a rapid rate. explosion of IPOs entering (Image: ) Business Standard As we can see from the chart above, the 2020 IPO boom bears a remarkable resemblance to that of the dotcom boom of the late 1990s. In what’s already been a fruitful year for tech IPOs, the arrival of cloud data warehouse vendor really underlined the power of initial public offerings in the current market. As it went public, the Californian company priced shares at $120 - up on its initial pricing of around $80. However, on its first day of trading, the share price leapt 111% to $245 per share - helping to raise $3 billion - the highest ever for a software firm at IPO. Snowflake This managed to catapult the company’s value to $70 billion - nearly six-times its $12.4 billion valuation prior to the event. Although the rise of tech may bring greater levels of interest for investors, sadly much of this market is reserved for institutional investors. IPOs However, some retail investors may be able to utilize the services of companies like the Nasdaq-listed investment firm, Freedom Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: FRHC) - which enables users to for certain listings through its subsidiary platform - Freedom24. However, this is subject to an application process and a threshold of at least $2,000 is needed. participate in IPOs More traditional brokers like Fidelity and TD Ameritrade also offer IPOs to investors, though the threshold is typically considerably higher. For instance, with Fidelity, investors are required to have between in household assets, while TD Ameritrade requires your account to hold a value of . $100,000 and $500,000 at least $250,000 The uncertainty of the may have prompted tech shares to rise exponentially, but the key question is whether this growth can be sustained in the era of the ‘new normal.’ However, with further innovations in the exciting world of augmented reality around the corner, the good times may continue to roll for publicly listed tech companies. COVID-19 pandemic

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