We live in a technological world and we are practically surrounded by many technologies that help us simplify our life and the things we do. However, technology today is changing at the speed of light and every day we witness new technological gadgets being invented that help us to do things in a better way. As many new technologies are invented there are many old ones that gradually disappear from our life. Many gadgets and gizmos that were once indispensable part of our life are now gone and some are on the verge to disappear.
Here we focus on 8 obsolete technologies that are about to disappear and that we should kill in 2015.
Landline Phones
Smartphones and tablets are dominating the telecommunications market globally and that means there are more consumers that use these devices. The era of landline phones is gone and the number of landline phone owners is dwindling. Many households around the globe have already given up on their landline phone as every member in the family practically has a smartphone or a mobile phone. With the current lot of smartphones and free Android apps we really don’t need landlines that cost us additionally.
Fax Machines
Fax machines became an important part of our life when email and smartphones were not that developed. Today, fax machine is a dying technology that we do not really use. Most people make use of emails and they use scanning devices and even smartphones to send pictures and other important files around the globe without incurring fax charges. There is certainly no doubt that we should kill fax machines in the upcoming year.
Video Cameras
Do you remember those days when top consumer brands like Sony and Panasonic would flash ads for their latest consumer video cameras? Well, those days are gone and should we say gone forever. Smartphones are rapidly eating up into the consumer video camera market while SLR and bridge cameras are doing the same from the other end. Most smartphones today offer HD video resolution, so why would anybody buy video cameras at all?
Desktops
While we all have some fond memories when we bought that first desktop that took up lot of space on our bedroom or living room, but today it is just another obsolete technology that we should put to rest. Laptops and tablets have impacted the desktop market considerably and today desktop sales are all time low. Most consumers today prefer to make use of their laptops and tablets because it offers more mobility that desktops fail to deliver.
CDs and DVDs
CDs and DVDs kicked out those black floppies out the market, but it’s their time now. Many users today use online media streaming options to view their videos and listen to audio songs. MP3 players are more popular today than Discmans and therefore the demand for CDs and DVDs have plummeted in the last few years. With the invent of cloud technology most users prefer to directly download and use their files from the server rather than copying it on DVDs and then playing those files.
PDAs
Almost a decade ago, PDAs were the hottest thing in the market, but with the invention of smartphones and tablets, PDAs have become obsolete and soon they will be out of our life forever. Personal Digital Assistants are no longer required because our smartphones and tablets can do all that work. Although, HP still produces few PDA models, Dell and Palm decided to move out of that space long ago. Some of the new age devices like Samsung Note are similar to PDAs and offer wide range of features that PDAs cannot. On the other hand, iPad apps for business can provide you more features than a standard PDA.
Point and Shoot Cameras
They are the cheapest cameras that you can find in the market, but still nobody is really interested in buying point and shoot cameras these days. Why? Well, because smartphones and tablets today have similar features and they offer better results. Hence, in a way smartphones and tablets are eating into the lower end of the camera market. No one today wants to carry an extra device that clicks the same quality of pictures that smartphones and tablets offer.
E-Readers
While many users still make use of e-readers the demand for it has gone down and probably will move out of the market next year. Smartphone makers today are coming up with phablets that are as good as e-readers and they come with other multiple features that make life simpler. E-book readers are good for reading books, but no one really wants to carry another device just for reading books when they can do the same on their phablets and tablets.
While there are many other gadgets and gizmos that are soon going to be out of our life, but these 8 certainly are on the verge of extinction and we need to kill these technologies in the following year.
Images Credit: wikimedia.com
Tablets are NOT a functional replacement for e-readers!
E-readers can be read in bright sunlight, have batteries that last for weeks and don’t emit any light which is essential for late-night reading.
Wow, DVDs are obsolete? I have tons of movies on DVD I watch a lot. And video cameras? There’s a rediculously huge market in terms of filmmakers. Is the author living under a rock?! Even landline phones are still very widely used, by my family too. And the rest of the items besides PDAs are still pretty much used by most people. I feel like the author got all this information from a typical college kid raised in the suburbs. Lol.
Landline phones are good when you have kids, and you don’t have to buy them smartphones just yet. CDs and DVDs still get a lot of mileage in cars (pun intended). I just bought a powerful desktop the other week, because it blows my top of the range MacBook Pro out of the water in terms of performance and disk capacity. Point and shoot cameras might yet come back in the digital mirrorless camera format, which allows compact cameras to perform at DSLR quality. As Ben has pointed out above, e-readers still have a lot of advantages over tablets.
This could have been a good tech analysis if it was more nuanced, but as it stands, the article is plainly wrong.
YES ! Who’s a good corporate puppy ? YOU ARE !!! Actually own nothing and have no private information – THAT’S A GOOD BOY !
#9 stenographers posing as journalists
“Most smartphones today offer HD video resolution, so why would anybody buy video cameras at all?”
Well, for a true zoom lens. And for attaching it to a fluid head tripod and plugging in a decent microphone and getting professional results. Other that that, I don’t know.
Just about all of these still have a place. The video camera, I’d love to have a digital one. My smartphone and tablet are about as full as they can be and I can’t add more hard storage. Camera photos go to the sd-card but not other files and photos downloaded. We still use our digital camera if we require good shots. We’ve considered getting rid of our land-line however we get too many telemarketer calls, especially around the holidays and elections. They are easier to monitor via land-line. Fax machines – there are a lot of businesses that do not use email, especially doctor’s offices. Especially if you are sending something private. I’ve received a few of those secure emails and not been able to retrieve them. Desktops can have a larger hard drive and be faster than laptops or tablets and are easier to type on. We’re considering upgrading my husband’s desktop except we don’t want windows 8.