Friday, November 30, 2012

The Power of Technology

          Throughout the beginning of this 21st century, the technology sector has truly dominated the market. With the inventions of the mobile phones, smart phones, tablets, laptops, and applications, the tech stocks have remarkably made it out of the recession and have flourished over the last 20 years. Microsoft, still a house hold name was all the rage in 90's, now competing for a spot in the market place today. Oracle still in use today is trying its best stay alive in the new generation of technology. With more mobile and online shopping, technology also changed the game of retailers. Circuit City fell through and could not compete with big online shopping brands of Ebay and Amazon.
            Although, all of these companies effected and helped shape the technology boom, none other than the two giants of Apple and Google completely changed the game forever. These two stocks combined have accumulated more money in the technology business than any other stock. It even changed the investing world to reach out to the common person like you and me by having easily accessible trading platforms like Charles Schwab and Etrade online and at your finger tips.
            Technology has quickly shaped our world today into something we can't live without. Thomas Edison's electricity invention is more and more taken for granted. Now THAT would have been the stock to invest in. A whole other sector of the society was invented through technology, social media. The world today is so much more connected than it ever was. Business that would take weeks, months now only take a few minutes online. You can buy your wants and even necessities without leaving the comfort of your own couch. Scary right? The society we have today is different than what it was 20 years ago, even 5 years. The invention of tablet is a whole other way gadget in the technology world. Something Apple has truly mastered. Whether you like the changes to society or not it is moving, and moving quickly. People have no time to waste and seem to be getting shorter and shorter attention spans. As technology has effected the way we live, how should you invest in it? Well the simple thing would have been to invest in a lot of Apple and Google in the 90's, but its 2012, so that concept is out of the picture. Do you still invest in those companies? even if their so expensive? The answer is not as simple as that. It depends on the investor, surely the more and more people have access to the internet the more and more that Google will go up right? Well, it is not that simple, Google's head executives have been doing an incredible job to keep Google at the forefront of the technology sector. Google is such a strong tech stock that it nearly controls the NASDAQ. Speaking of the NASDAQ, most technology stocks come from NASDAQ and is why it is one of the most successful markets in the world over the past 10 years. Even though Microsoft is such a house hold name, people (that can afford it) have been switching to Apple in flocks as there high priced Iphones,laptops, and Ipads have drawn millions around the world to their new products. Although it has changed leadership roles from Steve Job's, Apple is a powerful stock that can keep traveling well above its high of $700.
             The power of technology is impressive, but what would be next? Would anyone of predicted the smartphone frenzy 20 years ago? Even after the trendy flip phones. One things for sure, and that is people's attention spans have shrunk, and so whenever the next thing does come out it will have a hype, until the next one comes.