California’s Silicon Valley ruled the digital and technology spheres for many decades. From platforms to operating systems the connected world ran through the United States. The unchallenged positions of META, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet seemed locked today and in the foreseeable future. Those days may be coming to an end faster than the time it takes to generate a fake AI picture.
President Trump’s geopolitical stance with his Donroe Doctrine to take control of Greenland from Denmark sparked a rethink concerning tech dependency. Calls grow for a decoupling, easier said than done. Years of closed monopoly cannot be so easily swept away. Cutting the cord won’t be painless.
Europe has been far behind in the tech industry race, lacking global brands or a manufacturing base. Germany’s SAP ranks 450th on Forbes Global 500. Apple, the world’s most valuable company, has a market valuation of $2 trillion.
Unlike China, which placed an emphasis policy and investment in technology sovereignty, the Old World was more about regulation and platitudes. While Chinese brands introduced new OS’s, hardware, software, platforms, Europeans fell behind while every politician used the term “innovation hub” as if it could cast a magical spell to create technology with little effort. Risk prone original thinking is needed over copy catting ideas from across the Atlantic.
At the time of writing there is a quiet rethink of this relationship. Users are in the EU are moving to local technologies. Hamburg City officials are now using an open-source office software. Alternative cloud services have become popular. New smart devices not packaged with Android or iOS are gaining wider acceptance with buyers once hooked on the only two software systems.
Technology is no longer about the product or service but now a matter of national autonomy in the new world order.