We live in an incredible time in history, where technological advancements and the impact they have on our daily lives are increasing at an astonishing rate. Don’t believe me? Take a moment to think back to your life just 10 years ago — about your daily routine and how it has changed.
The advent of the smartphone alone has been a major disruptor to nearly every aspect of our lives — one that continues to evolve with each passing year, as new smartphone features and OS updates expose new features and capabilities.
As an investor, these changes to our everyday lives have exposed a number of incredible investment opportunities in the tech sector, many of which are barely scratching the surface in terms of potential.
Let’s look at some of those companies talk a bit about the potential they hold for investors.
BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX: BB)(NYSE: BB) may have given rise to the smartphone, but the company’s future lies in the automotive sector and catering to the security needs of its customers.
When BlackBerry shuttered its hardware unit over a year ago, long-time advocates were vocal in their dismay over the decision, but CEO John Chen knew that the hardware race, particularly under the Android operating system, was a highly competitive race to the bottom that BlackBerry could not win as a niche provider.
Instead, the company invested further into security, the enterprise segment and into QNX. QNX is the name behind BlackBerry’s secure and scalable operating system, which powers everything from nuclear power plants to medical systems to satellites. In other words, it is trusted by the market as being both stable and secure.
QNX is also invested in the automotive sector, and this is where the massive opportunity lies. BlackBerry is one of several companies working on bringing autonomous driving to the masses, but unlike the other big names in the market, BlackBerry’s QNX is already installed in millions of vehicles worldwide. This puts the company in an advantageous position that should prove lucrative in the years ahead.
BlackBerry continues to be an excellent long-term holding, as witnessed in the recent quarterly update.
Sierra Wireless, Inc. (TSX: SW)(NASDAQ: SWIR) is another tech-related name that is often floated around with IoT. IoT, or Internet of Things, is the idea of everyday devices being connected to the internet, so they can send and receive data from other devices or from us to accomplish mundane tasks.
This could be adjusting the thermostat, lighting, temperature of the oven, or even your new car texting you that the windows are down when there’s rain in the forecast. The possibilities are endless, and this is where Sierra comes into play.
Sierra is a pure-play IoT company, providing the hardware necessary for those devices to connect to the internet. The company has already established a number of promising agreements with automotive manufacturers, but that is not without risk. Contracts with automotive manufacturers have massive potential, but those contracts are reliant on the automotive manufacturer making the requisite changes to its manufacturing process to include Sierra’s components.
In the most recent quarterly announcement, Sierra noted that a delay from an automotive manufacturer could impact results in the next quarter. While this news may bring the stock down slightly, it is temporary and shouldn’t distract potential investors on what is otherwise an excellent long-term growth pick.
