Mobile technologies are not only making a killing financially today, their evolution is also killing off older forms of technology and dated ways of doing everything – even simple chores.
In much the same way that PCs and peripherals signaled the decline of music outlets, photo developers and copy suppliers, portable handhelds are swiftly outmoding numerous long-standing industries.
So which exactly are the most likely candidates for banishment to the waste bin of history in the near future?
The following list of examples accounts for just some of the many practices, services and technologies that will gradually fall out of use as the public embraces the full potential of smartphones and tablets.
1. Handwritten Grocery Lists
Thanks to the arrival of text-editing apps like PlainText, consumers can now take note of their daily shopping needs on iPads and iPhones. Abandoning paper and pens is just as preferable to most consumers as leaving money to the banks now that most businesses accept credit cards.
2. Paper Comics
Fans of everything from postmodern graphic novels to the classics of Marvel and DC have taken to ComiXology, the digital comics platform. Compatible with iPhones, iPads and Androids, the platform has served more than 100 million downloads from its 28,000-strong archive.
3. Paper Receipts
Rolls of paper can be just as nauseating as rolls of coins and stacks of bills. Thanks to mobile credit card readers like the PayAnywhere handheld, cash has become unnecessary in even the most isolated shopping spots. Now, with Android apps like EZreceipts, users can also skip the paper forms of health care receipts.
4. Business Cards
Until recently, promoting a shop or service could lead to costly tons of paper scraps. Now, thanks to apps like CardCloud, the business cards of old have gone the way of shops that don’t accept credit cards. The iOS and Android-compatible app can send unlimited volumes of cards, even to recipients without mobile handhelds.
5. Scanners
In recent years, smartphones have come to be equipped with scanning capabilities. The Genius Scan app can capture documents onto iPhones with remarkable efficiency.
6. Digital Cameras
It seems like only yesterday when digital cameras took the proverbial bite out of the photo-processing market. Now, those pocket devices from a decade ago are being superseded by the built-in photographic capabilities of smartphones.
7. Daily Newspaper
The death of printed media has long been forecast, though it is not quite as imminent as some might predict. Weekly publications will probably hold for at least another decade, but daily papers are likely to fold more rapidly in the years ahead.
8. Road Maps
Goodbye foldouts; goodbye printouts from Mapquest. Today, with local and global directions available on smartphones and pads, paper maps are as relevant as shops that don’t accept credit cards.
9. Foreign Language Dictionaries
Need to double-check a menu item or currency sign while traveling abroad? Words can now be translated via smartphones with ease and efficiency.
10. The iPod
The act of carrying thousands of songs on a handheld device for music is just so 90s. Today, consumers can organize music libraries on the same devices used for directions, photos, reading, web surfing and text messaging.
Smartphones are rapidly becoming capable of performing all digital tasks under the sun. In time, vast arsenals of equipment and gadgetry will be replaced in most households by small, lightweight mobile devices.
What other old-school technologies do you expect to disappear in the coming years courtesy of mobile?
