element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • About Us
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
Community Hub
Community Hub
Member's Forum Have you ever been way off on your technical predictions?
  • Blog
  • Forum
  • Documents
  • Quiz
  • Events
  • Leaderboard
  • Polls
  • Files
  • Members
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
Join Community Hub to participate - click to join for free!
Actions
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 32 replies
  • Subscribers 533 subscribers
  • Views 2151 views
  • Users 0 members are here
  • new technology predictions
Related

Have you ever been way off on your technical predictions?

dougw
dougw over 1 year ago
  • Were you one of the many who thought the computer mouse would never catch on because it was slower and less precise than a keyboard?
  • Did you really expect a 2 TB microSD card to be available this year for $4 ?
  • Did you expect digital cameras to completely make film and videotape obsolete?
  • Did you expect an 85 inch UHD TV to be available weighing just 41 kg?
  • Did you ever expect to see PCBs fabricated in low volume for less than $1?
  • Did you ever expect a 3D printer to be available and cost less than $150?
  • Did you ever expect to see a smart phone with a 100 mpixel camera?
  • Did you find GPS to be a mind-altering revolution in navigation?
  • Did you predict that Apple's iphone would unseat all the big phone companies and make Apple the largest company in the world?

Some of these things simply blow my mind.

What technology blows your mind or surprises you?

  1. When do you expect to see dwellings built with automated enclosed landing ports that have security beacons for drone deliveries?
  2. When do you expect driverless aerial Uber drones to be legalized?
  3. When do you expect most people to have an AI as their family physician?
  4. When do you expect the majority of people to spend more time in the metaverse than they do in the real world?
  5. When will you have a digital ID that allows you to vote with your phone? (some places already have this)

Would you bet money that your predictions of any of these 5 dates are accurate?

  • Sign in to reply
  • Cancel

Top Replies

  • gordonmx
    gordonmx over 1 year ago +2
    Bubble memory is the storage of the future. (1980s)
  • dougw
    dougw over 1 year ago in reply to bradfordmiller +2
    Yes, DEC's demise was hard hard to understand and to take. In some ways it was unfortunate that they were so far ahead in microcomputer development - they had launched the LSI-11 micro in 1975, 6 years…
  • kmikemoo
    kmikemoo over 1 year ago +2
    I've thought about this one a lot. I'm almost never accurate with my "future predictions". My Mom, however, was definitely an "early adopter" when it came to tech. She was on Vontage before VoIP was mainstream…
Parents
  • BigG
    BigG over 1 year ago

    I was absolutely convinced that the Apple iPad would never take off. People had laptops and they had phones. Why would anyone want something that was neither. And yet here we are with tablets galore.

    More recently, I thought these new airPods would also never catch on. Then I purchased some unknown clone on Amazon (they were on sale at a silly price) and was certainly impressed.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 1 year ago in reply to BigG

    I recall that the early attempts at tablet devices in the 90s failed miserably primarily due to lack of standardised wireless networking, battery life, and touch screen interfaces. Over time those three technologies developed and with the later attempts more people saw enough benefit to start purchasing them.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
  • BigG
    BigG over 1 year ago in reply to beacon_dave

    Gosh yes, I forgot all about the Palm Pilot (sometime in the 90's). Then there was a WindowsOS tablet that was big and clunky. All these poor products added to the belief that tablets were a non starter.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
  • kmikemoo
    kmikemoo over 1 year ago in reply to beacon_dave

    I used the Handspring Visor (a Palm Pilot spinoff) a lot.  To be efficient, you had to mastere it's shorthand or tap away with the stylus.  It's major downfall was volume.  I had to keep it in a chest pocket to hear anything.  And, yes, it way kind of clunky.  In a field uniform, it wasn't so bad.  In everything else... it was too much.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 1 year ago in reply to kmikemoo

    There were also the modified laptop devices that were more like electronic clipboards. I think they were more successful in industrial applications where they had proprietary wireless comms throughout the factory, hot-swap battery stations, along with bespoke software applications to run on them. Some manufacturers tried to bring them into education as "digital slates".

    There was also the attempt at a laptop with rotatable screen that you could use open as a laptop or closed as a clipboard/tablet.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
  • kmikemoo
    kmikemoo over 1 year ago in reply to beacon_dave

    beacon_dave And now, many folks at my company use a Microsoft Surface because is does something similar.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
Reply
  • kmikemoo
    kmikemoo over 1 year ago in reply to beacon_dave

    beacon_dave And now, many folks at my company use a Microsoft Surface because is does something similar.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
Children
No Data
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2025 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube