22nd Jan 10
Gadget of the Decade (2000 – 2009)
by David Davies
For consumer technology, this decade has been the most exciting since the introduction of the first commercially available home computers in the 1980s. Where the 1990s were dominated by the flourishing of the internet, the 2000s have seen its transition from novelty to necessity, and with wireless technologies and processing power accelerating to keep up, this has been the decade where technology finally fits in our pockets. This list of the 10 best gadgets of the decade traces this significant transition, with all but three of the entries being pocketable.
So, what were the criteria? Firstly, the ‘gadget’ had to be hardware. Some lists have included web-based services like Google, Facebook and YouTube, but to do so makes compilation almost impossible. So, no internet, only things that use the internet. Secondly, the gadget has to have some element of fun, or ‘don’t need one but want one’ to it. So no breakthroughs from the medical or science professions. These are gadgets in the truest sense of the word: things you get for Christmas, or buy with your birthday money. Finally, the gadget in question had to be a game-changer in some way. These are gadgets which, while they might well have superior rival or better engineered contemporaries, altered the landscape in some significant way.
USB Thumb Drive (2000)
These keyfob-sized marvels are so commonplace now as to be boring, or entirely utilitarian. But when IBM launched the first model back at the turn of the millennium, these were genuine geek status symbols. Over four times the volume of a single floppy disk (a whopping 8MB) could be stored on something the size of your index finger. Fast forward ten years and you can now purchase a similarly priced device with 16GB of flash memory, a 2000-fold increase in the space of a decade. There is no better illustration of the progress of consumer technology.
Nokia 3310 (2000)
The Nokia 3310 brought the mobile phone to the kids. This was the phone that popularized ‘Snake’, a game so addictive that whole classrooms of children, now the core of the working population, missed out on learning long division. No matter. Although by today’s standards the 3310 is an archaic device that even Grandad would scoff at, upon its release it hit the sweet spot so well that it went on to sell 126 million units.
PlayStation 2 (2000)
The Wii might be the little console that could, and most likely generated more column inches, but without the PS2’s pitch-perfect mix of high technology and just about affordable box price, a device like the Wii would not be possible. The PlayStation laid the groundwork for Sony to drive the home console out of bedrooms and into living rooms. Because of the PS2, Grand Theft Auto IV can have a bigger opening weekend than The Dark Knight. Because of the PS2, there was an audience for the Wii. Because of the PS2, Microsoft knuckled down and introduced the X-Box, prompting the kind of console arms race not seen since the heyday of the SNES and Mega Drive.
Sky+ (2001)
Such was the lack of furore surrounding the initial launch of Sky+, ask most people and they will think it’s a relatively new technology. It might be a further surprise to learn that there is now one Sky+ box for every ten people living in the UK. Okay, so its appeal might be limited to a certain small set of isles just off the coast of France, but Sky+ is the best implementation of technology that other manufacturers like TiVo in the US have been so successful with. The key to its success? The seamless integration with existing Sky services, and the utilisation of existing user interface paradigms (the remote control has exactly the same buttons as the average DVD player and the recording system is built into the familiar Sky Guide) meant that the only barrier to market dominance was getting a new box. And that was just a matter of time.
Blackberry (2002)
If you want to be pedantic, the first Blackberry-branded device was released in 1999, but the Blackberry smartphone design we all know was released in 2002. Blackberry redefined the nature of corporate communication. Suddenly, everyone, everywhere could receive e-mails immediately. Word of mouth spread out of the workplace and into the high street, and before you knew it if you had no Blackberry you were off the grid.
Motorola RAZR (2004)
If the Blackberry took cutting-edge technology and wrapped it up into an acceptably-sized package, the RAZR took acceptable technology and wrapped it in a cutting-edge package. Motorola’s masterstroke was to focus on something other than the latest and greatest features. Instead, it took an acceptable feature set and packaged it in the most beautiful mobile phone the world had seen. It single-handedly split the mobile handset industry in two. Your phone was either cool, or powerful. It would be another three years before the two were reconciled.
Tom-Tom (2004)
Sat Nav was, forgive the pun, a turning point. It is one of the shining examples of a technology that is genuinely useful. GPS devices are tools, and Tom-Tom was the first company to capitalize on understanding that relationship. It simplified the entire experience, put a cute name to a cold technology and humanized the relationship between user and device, to such an extent that Tom-Tom is almost a byword for Sat Nav in the same way Hoover was for vacuum cleaner. Almost, but not quite. Luckily for consumers, Tom-Tom face stiff competition from a number of contemporaries, and that can only be a good thing.
Nintendo Wii (2006)
If this list was based on mainstream media coverage, the Wii would have few rivals. Nintendo went back to basics by creating something entirely new, removing the learning curve of obscenely complicated controllers and replacing it with intuitive, gesture-based actions. A few years on, accusations of shallowness and a lack of genuinely original games to take advantage of the revolutionary control system have robbed the Wii of its halo. Despite this, the Wii changed the image of gaming in the same way Facebook changed the image of online communication. From being the lonely preserve of the geekery, gaming became the best way to spend a night in with mates.
Flip Video (2007)
The full potential of the Flip is yet to be realised, but it has already done enough to make this list. Pure Digital Technologies, creators of the original Flip Video, were the first to spot what in retrospect was a fundamental, gaping gap in the market: the truly affordable video camera. Before the Flip, ‘budget video camera’ meant something for around £500, and even these basic models sported esoteric features like white balance, manual-focus and night modes. Pure Digital’s first genius move was to strip the camera down to the bare essentials: a lens, a record button, a play button, and nothing else. Its second genius move was to build a USB connector into the camera itself, introducing plug-and-play to an industry that had long been dominated by complex encoding routines that plagued both ease of use and enjoyment. The Flip Video made taking and sharing video fun in the same way the iPod made digital music fun.
iPhone (2007)
You might be surprised to see no iPod on this list. While the iPod was a breakthrough device that allowed Apple to get back on its feet and Steve Jobs to become the only CEO in the world as famous as the company he oversees, the iPhone was the true realisation of the portable device, the apogee of all that had come before. Its potential is yet to be realised, and its infiltration of almost every portable market on the planet is still ongoing. The iPhone was the result of a company at the top of its game reading its target market like an open book and leveraging all its talents to create a device that left its competitors in the dust, a cloud that is only just clearing. Is it the best gadget of all time? Probably. Why? Even if you hate Apple, or iPhones, take a look at the phone in your hand and then compare it to the phone you had in 2006. There is no comparison.
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