Suprised the fleshlight wasn't on that list
Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
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Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#12Depends how you define "fastest". In this case it's "percentage of households after 7 years". I think if we shortened the definition (arbitrarily) to 1 year we would get very different results (yet keep the same headline).
Also, it's 7 years after first introduction to market . There are lots of products which spent a long time going nowhere and then suddenly exploded once they became sufficiently refined.
Such as the iPod? Or are you thinking of a different example?
Actually I might be way off with the iPod...
Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#13And the cool thing is that a smartphone now serves the function of all of these gadgets. It's a music player, video player, camcorder, digital camera, answering machine, and so on. Internet TV replaces the need for satellite TV and a cellphone camera + email replaces the need for a FAX machine. It's astonishing how few appliances you need aside from a smartphone.
Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, it's 7 years after first introduction to market . There are lots of products which spent a long time going nowhere and then suddenly exploded once they became sufficiently refined.
Such as the iPod? Or are you thinking of a different example? Actually I might be way off with the iPod...
The first example which came to mind was the internet. After that, smart phones.
Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#15It's interesting to compare this to the rate of adoption for the land line telephone:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AnZb5H7...
This new technology took decades to reach mass use, from the time it was introduced on the market.
Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#16If you take another look at the figure, the highest correlating factor isn't whether the "gadget" (by which they mean consumer technology, not any specific device) is for "consumption of entertainment" or "communication or production of media", as the text of the article suggests. It's simply how complicated the technology is--dare I say, how innovative the technology is--and the reason is simple: the more innovative the technology, the longer it took from first being "on the market" to becoming mature enough to be widely adopted.
(How does one count length of time "on the market", anyway? What counts as the first cell phone "on the market"?)
So what this is really saying is: the more advanced the technology, the longer it takes for the technology to go from early-adopter to mass market.
Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#17And the cool thing is that a smartphone now serves the function of all of these gadgets. It's a music player, video player, camcorder, digital camera, answering machine, and so on. Internet TV replaces the need for satellite TV and a cellphone camera + email replaces the need for a FAX machine. It's astonishing how few appliances you need aside from a smartphone.
But it does a poor job replacing the boombox. You need some other device or attachment to really share that sound.
Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#18It's interesting to compare this to the rate of adoption for the land line telephone: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AnZb5H7... This new technology took decades to reach mass use, from the time it was introduced on the market.
A direct requirement for new infrastructure deployment to make use of a new technology is always going to reduce the rate of uptake.
The top 5 things on the list all require pretty much just a factory and a large number of trucks to get value out to the consumers quickly. Plus customers themselves were providing amplification in the value being delivered on those trucks by producing their own mixtapes and VHS recordings to swap with friends all the time.
Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#19And the cool thing is that a smartphone now serves the function of all of these gadgets. It's a music player, video player, camcorder, digital camera, answering machine, and so on. Internet TV replaces the need for satellite TV and a cellphone camera + email replaces the need for a FAX machine. It's astonishing how few appliances you need aside from a smartphone.
But it does a poor job replacing the boombox. You need some other device or attachment to really share that sound.
It already does a pretty good job at annoying me in the bus with other people's dance/rap "music"
Re: Guess What's the Fastest-Adopted Gadget of the Last 50 Years
#20And the cool thing is that a smartphone now serves the function of all of these gadgets. It's a music player, video player, camcorder, digital camera, answering machine, and so on. Internet TV replaces the need for satellite TV and a cellphone camera + email replaces the need for a FAX machine. It's astonishing how few appliances you need aside from a smartphone.
But it does a poor job replacing the boombox. You need some other device or attachment to really share that sound.
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