This week’s small business tech news: Apple’s iPhone will accept credit cards, rival Square…and more. Did you notice this development?
Here are five technological and Gmail developments and how they may affect your organization. They are all about the future of small business technology.
1. It’s possible that Apple’s iPhone could soon be able to take contactless payments.
According to recent rumors, developers intend to integrate a POS system inside Apple’s iPhone, similar to Square (which changed its name to Block).
According to the source, Apple’s rollout will integrate the feature directly into iPhones, eliminating the need for retailers to purchase additional hardware.
Apple spent about $100 million for Mobeewave, a firm working on a technology that would allow people to pay using their cell phones.
Why is this significant for your company?
Despite how simple it is to take payments with Square, merchants that use the card reader often have to input additional hardware to complete the transaction.
Apple wants to avoid all of that and streamline the process. Is it compatible with other systems? What will the price be? Is this less expensive than Square or other mobile credit card readers? How simple is this going to be? Only time (in the near term) will tell.
2. Citrix, a cloud computing and virtualization company, was sold for $16.5 billion.
Vista Equity Partners, a global investment group, will pay $16.5 billion for Citrix, a cloud computing and virtualization business.
Citrix began as a remote access software provider for Windows computers but expanded its services to encompass networking, servers, and cloud computing.
Yahoo Finance reports that Citrix creates software that allows employees to remotely log on to their company’s programs. A type of product heavily used during the epidemic. That is to say, companies sought reasonable methods to keep distant workers linked to significant operations.
Many people are considering permanent hybrid arrangements for home and office work. It will certainly drive up demand for technologies that make this possible.
Vista and another investor, Evergreen, plan to merge Citrix and TIBCO Software, one of Vista’s portfolio firms, as part of the deal.
Why is this significant for your company?
Prepare for changes if you’re a Citrix user.
According to Citrix, the merger will create one of the world’s biggest software companies, servicing 400,000 clients, including 98 percent of the Fortune 500, and 100 million users in 100 countries.
Citrix’s specified growth plan and SaaS transition will accelerate.
However, to develop hybrid cloud IT strategies and satisfy the objectives of the contemporary organization, circumstances will position the merged firm to offer a complete, secure, and efficient infrastructure for corporate application and desktop delivery, as well as data management.
3. On February 8th, Gmail’s new “integrated view” became available to Workspace users.
Google Workspace will have a new “integrated view” starting February 8th. Therefore, by April, users will be able to view the new appearance automatically.
Why is this significant for your company?
According to Google, the new integrated view will make it easier for users to transition between chats, meetings, and email without switching tabs.
Prepare yourself as you will not have a choice.
However, according to Google, the integrated view will be a “normal experience” by June, without choosing to go back.
4. Microsoft Teams will improve hybrid meetings and add predictive text tools.
System managers will update Microsoft Teams’ mobile app shortly to include predictive text and enhancements to hybrid meetings.
Teams will introduce the “Front Row” perspective to make hybrid meetings seem more like in-person meetings.
Why is this significant for your company?
The predictive text feature’s purpose is to make it more challenging to commit grammatical or spelling mistakes when typing on the fly, mainly as more people work remotely.
However, the new “Front Row” feature moves the videos to the bottom of the conference screen, bringing all meeting participants face-to-face.
5. Tech investment is at an all-time high, and everyone wants to employ programmers.
According to recent research, there will be around 12,800 job vacancies for computer workers in 2021.
This is a 105 percent gain over the previous year.
Therefore, the bulk of the tech job openings was in the engineering and software development sectors. The number of job openings for these positions increased by 88.2 percent year over year, indicating that companies need digital services and products.
Why is this significant for your company?
Tech is still highly hot, and competent internal personnel is difficult to come by.
But isn’t that unsurprising? Or at least expected? The question becomes…did you plan for it?
