Tech that will Fade with Time
Business Technology | June 15, 2012
We all love our gadgets. And when new ones appear, we can’t envision how we lived without them. Even so, there’s an ugly truth to the world of technology: Much of what’s hot today becomes obsolete in the future. Just consider the humble landline telephone. Sure, many households continue to have them, but a large number of people are relying solely on cell phones and ditching the expense of operating a landline. It’s not difficult to imagine a future in which landline telephones are no longer attached to our kitchen walls but are instead filling our landfills.
It’s an interesting evolution that technology undergoes. So we thought we would highlight a handful of the technologies that may vanish in the next ten years.
Fax Machines: Don’t you hate receiving or sending faxes? It’s not just you. The fax machine, once the height of gee-whiz technology, is now a pain in the posterior. Don’t be surprised if all our “faxing” in the near future is done completely through e-mail.
Newspaper Classified Ads: Recently The Huffington Post stated that classifieds are on the endangered species list. This is mainly as a result of sites like Craigslist. They provide massive forums for people to search classifieds and add their own for free. This opportunity may have put the nail in the coffin for newspaper classified ads.
Film-Based Cameras: Digital cameras have transformed the art of taking photos. Once venerable, Kodak has felt the brunt of this revolution, and the company is no longer making cameras. Consumers like digital cameras because they can instantly print their photos, and they can dump photos that they don’t like without paying a cent. This has significantly decreased the lifespan of the traditional film-based camera.
The Calculator Watch: In its short-lived life; the calculator watch was a well-loved item. It made it easy to always have a calculator handy when you needed one. When cell phones with built in calculators came into existence, the calculator watch went out the window. It’s pretty clear why PCWorld listed it as an obsolete technology.
The Video Arcade: This may come as a shock, but the video arcade may be on its way out as well. It’s unfortunate, because many gamers have fond memories of feeding quarters into Space Invaders or Donkey Kong at the local arcade. But these days, gamers have their systems in their homes and can play with people all over the world.
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We all love our gadgets. And when new ones appear, we can’t envision how we lived without them. Even so, there’s an ugly truth to the world of technology: Much of what’s hot today becomes obsolete in the future. Just consider the humble landline telephone. Sure, many households continue to have them, but a large number of people are relying solely on cell phones and ditching the expense of operating a landline. It’s not difficult to imagine a future in which landline telephones are no longer attached to our kitchen walls but are instead filling our landfills.
It’s an interesting evolution that technology undergoes. So we thought we would highlight a handful of the technologies that may vanish in the next ten years.
Fax Machines: Don’t you hate receiving or sending faxes? It’s not just you. The fax machine, once the height of gee-whiz technology, is now a pain in the posterior. Don’t be surprised if all our “faxing” in the near future is done completely through e-mail.
Newspaper Classified Ads: Recently The Huffington Post stated that classifieds are on the endangered species list. This is mainly as a result of sites like Craigslist. They provide massive forums for people to search classifieds and add their own for free. This opportunity may have put the nail in the coffin for newspaper classified ads.
Film-Based Cameras: Digital cameras have transformed the art of taking photos. Once venerable, Kodak has felt the brunt of this revolution, and the company is no longer making cameras. Consumers like digital cameras because they can instantly print their photos, and they can dump photos that they don’t like without paying a cent. This has significantly decreased the lifespan of the traditional film-based camera.
The Calculator Watch: In its short-lived life; the calculator watch was a well-loved item. It made it easy to always have a calculator handy when you needed one. When cell phones with built in calculators came into existence, the calculator watch went out the window. It’s pretty clear why PCWorld listed it as an obsolete technology.
The Video Arcade: This may come as a shock, but the video arcade may be on its way out as well. It’s unfortunate, because many gamers have fond memories of feeding quarters into Space Invaders or Donkey Kong at the local arcade. But these days, gamers have their systems in their homes and can play with people all over the world.
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