The study showed there were over 43 million total conversations on social media in the Philippines from March 15-23, the time when the government placed Luzon under enhanced community quarantine.
IDC said the Covid-19 pandemic is contributing to this figure by causing an abrupt increase in the number of work from home employees and changing the mix of data being created to a richer set of data that includes video communication and a tangible increase in the consumption of downloaded and streamed video.
Most of the funding was focused on autonomous passenger vehicles (APVs), surgical robotics, and warehouse automation, with significant growth for field robotics and drone services.
However, the pandemic has also given rise to new identification and surveillance needs, spurring further investments in biometric AI algorithm design, which will give a boost to the face recognition technologies market going forward.
The RC143 app allows contact tracing using the geo-location and sensory capabilities of smartphones. The app will also enable its users to get information on their likely levels of exposure to the virus.
Overall spending on devices including PCs and phones will be down significantly this year and is the main drag on total IT spending with the economic fallout likely to disrupt upgrade cycles for smartphones, which were expected to be boosted by the launch of premium 5G devices.
The drop comes as no surprise as Q1 marked the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the peak of the lockdowns in China, which extended to the rest of the world by the end of the quarter.
In Asia, the survey found that since the coronavirus restrictions began in many countries, interest in messaging clients increased as many as five times.
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic furthered the decline of the worldwide tablet market as global shipments fell to 24.6 million units, down 18.1% year over year during the first quarter of 2020 (1Q20), according to research firm IDC.
