Following Brexit, the immediate message from the UK's science, technology, and games community was one of trepidation. Now today, as we reach the first anniversary of the EU vote, we explore the real-world impacts that have started to take place. Read more: Great Repeal Bill white paper reveals how Brexit will hit our UK laws and basic rights
After the government lost a Supreme Court case saying it must give parliament a vote on whether to withdraw from the European Union, a bill on the vote was laid before the House of Commons. The Article 50 bill then passed through parliament.
Although politicians are yet to agree on the UK's terms of exit from the European Union and trade deals have not yet started, this has not stopped companies from responding to the vote.
Here's what has happened so far in the technology, business, design, and science spheres since the vote. This post will be updated as more responses emerge.
- Read more: Great Repeal Bill white paper reveals how Brexit will hit our UK laws and basic rights
After Apple announced its MacBook Pro it also quietly raised the prices of its others hardware in the UK.
In what is likely to be a response to the decreasing value of the pound against the dollar, the prices of its MacBooks increased.
The Mac mini saw a jump of almost £100 to £479. There were almost £300 increases for the iMack 4K and iMac 5K. One of the biggest increases though was a £500 bump (to £2,999) for the Mac Pro.
More recently, Apple announced it would be raising prices for apps in its App Store by 25 per cent following the UK's decision to leave the EU. All apps will be hit, meaning 79p apps will now cost 99p and £1.49 apps will rise to £1.79.
Microsoft has raised the prices of its enterprise software and cloud services because of the drop in the value of the pound to "realign close to euro levels".
"Effective January 1, 2017, we will be increasing British pound pricing to harmonise prices for enterprise software and cloud services within the EU/EFTA region," the company said in a blog post published on Friday, October 21.
Writing for the company, social media and marketing manager Sergejs Cuhrajs, said "on-premises enterprise software" would increase by 13 per cent, while "most" of its enterprise cloud prices would jump by 22 per cent.
"For business customers, these changes will not affect existing orders under annuity volume licensing agreements for products that are subject to price protection," Cuhrajs wrote. He continued to say that other "harmonisation" price changes happened with the Norwegian krone and Swiss franc in April 2016.
The move by Microsoft follows it making higher-than-expected profits from its cloud and enterprise software.
Microsoft has also increased its hardware prices, some by up to £400.
Based on prices from Microsoft's own online store, the Surface Book has gone from a starting price of £1299 to £1449, an increase of £150 - an 11.5 per cent spike. The top-end model, with an Intel Core i7 processor and 1TB storage, now costs £3049 - a £400 rise.
"In response to a recent review we are adjusting the British pound prices of some of our hardware and consumer software in order to align to market dynamics," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "For indirect sales where our products and services are sold through partners, final prices will continue to be determined by them."
Not everything is gloomy. Software company Adobe has committed to expanding its UK presence. The firm will be building a new sales and marketing office in London to cover Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
“We have a big worldwide view and [Brexit] didn’t cause anybody to have a second thought," Garrett Ilg, Adobe's EMEA said to the Telegraph. "It’s an interesting situation, the people have voted for change and change is hard but the way to succeed is to take a hard-right turn.”
Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank purchased British microchip designer ARM Holdings for £24 billion in cash – the largest ever acquisition of a European technology company.
The deal had a mixed reaction from experts in the field. Eben Upton, the founder of the Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi Foundation called it a “fantastic thing,” adding: "I think we needed a bit of a reminder that Brexit isn’t the end of the world," he said at the time.
However, critics of the deal have said the purchase may have been opportunistic. Paul Miller, a senior analyst at Forrester, said because of the drop in the pound the deal may have been completed "potentially billions of pounds cheaper" than before the referendum. SoftBank later revealed plans to sell 25 per cent of its stake in ARM.
Much of the research undertaken at UK universities is funded by EU grants and academics are able to benefit from the Union's freedom of movement rules. Straight after the vote, it was warned there would be a brain drain.
Since then, some scientists have planned to leave the UK. BuzzFeed has spoken to a number of academics who have decided to leave the country following the vote. "I feel that having the closer link with European funding and EU-based colleagues just strengthens the science," one researcher told the publication.
Elsewhere, there are reports of staff from leading universities being asked to be removed from EU-funded projects. "In one case, an EU project officer recommended that a lead investigator drop all UK partners from a consortium because Britain’s share of funding could not be guaranteed," the Guardian reported.
Chinese mobile phone manufacturer OnePlus said it was forced to "re-evaluate" its position after the vote and change the prices of its devices.
From July 11 the firm's OnePlus 3 was increased to £329 in the UK, up from £309.
"We've seen a downward trend for the Pound against the USD over the past two years," the company said at the time. "While we’ve held off action for as long as we can, the sharp drop witnessed in the currency markets following the Brexit decision has forced us to re-evaluate the OnePlus 3's pricing in the UK at a time of significant demand."
Its latest OnePlus 5 has been criticised for being less value for money than previous models at £499.
Following fears that Brexit would limit the amount of work available, major design firm Arup has said it will be cutting at least 90 jobs.
The firm said the UK is "operating in a period of uncertainty" and to "ensure its long-term business health" it would be reducing the number of staff it has. Overall it would have an impact on two percent of the UK-based employees or four percent of its London-based staff.
One of the most complex simulation games is getting harder. The Football Manager series is trying to predict the fallout of Brexit.
During the game's career mode players will be given a notification that the UK has started to negotiate its exit from the EU. Then one year later the implications will be seen. This could mean limits on freedom of movement and players having to leave UK clubs.
"We were left with an interesting situation this year when the people of Britain voted to leave the EU and it wouldn't have felt right to leave that out," Miles Jacobson, studio director of developer Sports Interactive said.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
