Amazon, Apple, Zoom top 2020 tech winners; Quibi biggest loser
When a pandemic hits, stay-at-home orders are issued and people spend less time at retail stores.
This year, e-commerce giant Amazon was there to serve.
Amazon’s sales ballooned, as the initial delays and hiccups got fixed and the e-tailer figured out ways to continue moving products from one location to another, often overnight.
For that, we pick Amazon as the biggest tech winner of 2020, with Apple a close runner-up. In its most recent earnings, Amazon said sales jumped to $96.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with $70 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Millions of people were sent home to work or to learn. To do that more efficiently, they needed to buy new computers, phones and tablets. Apple reversed a trend of declining iPad sales and flat Mac computer sales, while also continuing to sell a high-end product, the iPhone, with a top starting price of $1,099. This, even as many people lost their jobs and faced business closures and evictions.
In its most recent earnings call, Apple said it sold $9 billion worth of Macs, up from $6.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. Sales for the iPad also jumped, with revenue of $6.8 billion, versus $4.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities projects sales of 195 million iPhones for 2020, up from 185 million in 2019.
Hits:Apple iPhone again best tech seller of the year, thanks to the working-from-home trend
Profits:Here’s how much you’d have had to invest in Amazon 10 years ago to be a millionaire today

