It is almost 20 odd days that 2013 will be over. People used to say that 1AD to 1950AD never brought that many changes as much as 1950AD to 2000AD. However, 2nd Millennium’s beginning was the launch of an exponential rise in tech world and the innovations it brought to the globe.
Moving onto 2013 a few things became obsolete despite being so much in use for years with a need yet not totally out of picture.
Some of the most common Obsoletes in Tech World are
SMS
The SMS texts sent over the years had already fallen down in 2012 all across North America and Europe, courtesy Viber and WhatsApp. Though in 2013 the number of SMS sent was easily surpassed by the IMs (Instant Messages) sent by September 2013 globally (TechCrunch reported). This means that now IM apps have got real purpose and facilitation to smartphone users. With dynamic features and more expressive ways of communication it has brought in Line, Hangouts (with SMS support), BBM and WeChat as new contenders.
BBM
Blackberry was predicted to go down by 2011 but somehow survived a few more years before being bought out yet not being the same as it was some 5 years back. The real trouble came when it tried to venture into Android and iPhone as BBM app. The BB Pin hype became a trend for a couple of days and died down. Why on earth would one want to have limited features with a PIN. Come on! Line has already troubled WhatsApp and Viber despite being old players and scores of options to communicate. Blackberry needed to innovate but what it did was replicate.
Online Navigation
The new Sygic app has taken the storm to a whole new level. Gone are the days when Google Maps was the best sought option to be used over an internet source and get going with navigation. Just pay a nominal 50 Euros to get map of the country you want (out of an 85 countries’ list). This is it… Activate the app and get going. GRPS/EDGE/3G/WiFi is not an issue! It never needs one. Store the map and tracking starts. The 34 million plus downloads on a Paid app worth € 50 is no small feat.
USB Storage
Though not in Pakistan but in developed countries USB storage is now not a sought after option. The world has now shifted to cloud storage as reliable and easily accessible option to access ones’ own data with permissions granted to others to access as well if needed. No need to have any physical device in pocket that might be lost. With SkyDrive, gDrive, DropBox and Amazon Cloud being in picture along with many others one simply doesn’t need anything else. Moreover, with a huge nose dive in flash memory devices’ sales in 2013, Yahoo has also started working on Flickr beyond videos and picture storage cloud service. Yahoo can easily beat others since it already offers a 1 Terabyte space on Flickr unlike other competitors.
Symbian OS
The Nokia 808 Pureview (41 Megapixel hype) phone with Nokia Belle OS was the last phone based on Symbian platform. The shipment to India in June 2013 was the last one of the Nokia 808 handset. The already forgotten OS (Operating System) did even worse to get good sales of the new phone. Eventually Nokia had to go to its new OS Windows Phone 8 to re-launch a Nokia LUMIA 1020 to get the desired profits. However, Symbian OS was an era that gave rise to new ideas. It redefined the use of cellphones beyond listening to calls and sending texts.
2013 isn’t over yet and many more things might be obsolete in coming days. If you have a few in mind just bring them to our notice by comments or email at [email protected]
