If you are like me, you’ve become accustomed to your daily routine…and those routines are changing.
For example, Baby Boomers have typically done their banking by driving to a bank branch, making a deposit or withdrawal and then leaving.
As banks have cut back staffing, that’s become time consuming.
Click Economy
This week, I experienced the joy of depositing checks using a mobile device.
Download the app, put in your security credentials, take a picture of the check after you sign it and mission accomplished.
If you want to read a book or movie, you download the Kindle app from Amazon and the content shows up in 2 seconds.
Amazon
If you need transportation, we now have Uber and Lyft.
Clearly, technology has made lives easier with nearly every routine task made a lot easier.
How does this affect investment considerations, you might ask?
Prime Profits
Over the last week, Amazon (AMZN) held their annual summer Prime Day, and it exceeded forecasts.
It is now estimated that Amazon has 85 million subscribers paying annual ($100) or monthly ($10) membership fees for the service.
Facebook (FB) recently announced they have more than 2 billion users.
Transformational
Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, Instagram, and Venmo are all young companies that have amassed massive user bases in short periods of time.
The discerning investor watches these technological shifts and tries to anticipate what might work and what won’t.
Profit Surge
All of this will have a big impact on the overall economy.
In theory, businesses should be getting more efficient and profitable as more productive technology gets integrated in their operations.
Think about the cloud data storage services, robotics, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics.
Takeaway
Much has been made about corporate profitability and how current margins are at all time high levels.
Some believe profits will revert lower to more historical norms down the road.
In my opinion, they may not and the lasting efficiency of technology may explain why.
Photo Credit: David Spinks via Flickr Creative Commons
