10 Software Products and Gadgets That Will Disappear in The Next Decade

November 9, 2011 4 Comments

Are you a PC? Do you have an Android or an iOS phone? Is your car a hydrid? Electric? Is your TV 3D?

As consumers, we want, no need, the latest, coolest thing. And now more than ever, manufacturers are scrambling to make new things we cannot help but buy.

But in the process of designing the next big thing, the last thing is often rendered obsolete. Eight track tapes? Killed by cassettes. Cassettes? Killed by CDs. CDs? Killed by mp3s! And even mp3s are being rendered obsolete by cloud-based streaming music services.

So what are the next clutch of products that are going to be banished to the Land of Misfit Toys? We asked our panel of…er….experts their opinion.

1) Cable/ Satellite T.V

-Sheila McCreven

There’s a brewing competition between content on the internet and whats available on t.v. As consumers see it, the monopolistic holds that many cable television providers have on their respective neighborhoods makes the price of a subscription unreasonable, and customer service hit-or-miss. Finally, there is competition. Services like Hulu and Netflix have been developing and now offer instant streaming of the hottest television programming and movies for a monthly price that’s a fraction of cable, a welcome trend in today’s economy.

2) The Computer Mouse

-Ryan Aldrich

The extinction of the computer mouse has been a slowly moving phenomenon, but one cannot ignore that someday it may be be impossible to find one. The plus side of the mouse is that they’re comfortable, however the advancement of trackpads and the growing popularity of touchscreen interfaces on nearly everything could be leading us to a world where trackpads and touch screens are a preferred method of interacting with technology.

3) Portable Digital Cameras/ Camcorders

-Lauren Sprague

Think of how many great photo opportunities you’ve missed because you didn’t have your camera with you. Though digital cameras have gotten faster and smaller over the years, we still have to hassle with carrying them around. Since first being introduced, cell phone cameras have been popular, however their ability to catch a good photo made them practically useless – until today. Apple’s newest iPhone, the 4S model has made waves with it’s photography technology. The phone features an 8 megapixel camera with a image signal processor just as good as DSLR cameras. Kent German, Senior Editor of Cnet Reviews compiled a list of the 5 Best Camera Phones. Any of the models shown rival the prices of a standalone digital camera. Could it be that digital cameras are a thing of the past?

4) Ereaders

-Katelyn Anton

Ereaders have been around since 2007, but their popularity didn’t catch on until large booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble got involved. New announcements, technical upgrades, and falling prices helped to catapult the sales of Ereaders up 400% from 2008 to 2009. Unfortunately, all of the momentum that brought readers to the market for a wide variety of users has stalled, and in the meantime, the advancement of tablets has captured the attention of readers who are looking for more value and functionality with their gadgets, a trend that we observed in our feature, “Kindle vs. Nook vs. iPad“.

5) Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Msn.com

-John Hoda

MS-DOS rose to popularity in the mid 1980′s and has inspired a loyal following among its customers in the years leading to the present-day. Microsoft has periodically developed its operating system throughout the years to reflect new innovations and trends in technology. Some believe that the next step could mean banishing the system altogether and get on board with something that will eliminate the need to install software and applications natively on a PC.

6) Adobe Flash

-Jack Nork

There’s quite a lot working against flash these days. For starters, the Apple iPad and iPhone don’t support flash, which, as you interpret it can either be a sign of the times, or a sign of Apple’s ambition to drive a nail into Adobe’s coffin. Regardless, there is a number of anti-flash web design folks out there who are convinced that Action Script 3.0 often falls into the wrong hands and ends up using too much cpu. This, combined with the development and growing popularity of HTML5 could very well be the end for Adobe Flash as we know it.

7) Landline Phones

-Mason Rabinowicz

If trends continue, landline phones will join telephone booths in the gadget graveyard. Cell phones and smartphones have evolved to receive better reception with a battery that trumps its predecessors. We live in a world which is constantly on the go, and landline ponies simply don’t fit into the equation. Additionally, wireless bills have been known to save customers the cost of local and long-distance charges.

8) Smartphones

-Derek Koch

It may seem strange, but even in their prime, the end of Smartphones is imaginable. Last month when Apple announced the release of the new iPhone 4S, many were buzzing about it’s most stunning new feature, Siri. More than a simple voice command application, Siri has the ability to contextualize anything that you say to it, or…her. Visit this blog to see what we mean. In all Siri-ousness, how long could it possibly be before we have a small, blue-tooth’esque device that features all of the normal functions of a smartphone via voice command?

9) Physical Media

-Klayton Wald

It’ll start with thumb drives and before you know it, there won’t be a CD in sight. Cloud sharing is poised to change the way we think about storing and sharing our documents, photos, and media. Once it happens, we will no longer need to worry about losing our files due to damage done to physical hardware. A quick upload to the cloud can make virtually anything accessible to anyone at anytime. This metamorphosis could also have a defining impact on film and record producers whose main distribution channel is to make sales through physical copies of the media. As they become obsolete, there will be a rising demand for digital-puchase media which we hope will also come with a much lower price than now.

10) Dedicated Video Game Machines

-Wenbin Zhang

Video game machines have been a staple in the childhoods of the past few generations. Could it be that these beloved machines are nearing their end? Well, not particularly. As of late, video game consoles have been keeping pace by adopting all kinds of new multimedia, from dvd playability to blu-ray, and even the ability to stream Netflix watch instantly. We imagine video game consoles to become options that you can purchase from your T.V, leaving you to only have the need to buy the systems’ respective controller.

11) Everything

-Mike Morris

There’s a possibility that more things than what we’ve mentioned will become obsolete throughout the next decade. What ideas do you have? Share them with us in the comment section below!