Technology: The Last 10 Years!

So it’s the year 2010, but just to think, the technology over the past 10 YEARS has changed dramatically. I’ve managed to derive a list of the change in technology over the past 10 years.

Internet Access
Internet Access is a rather big one, at the biggest peak, we’ve gone from 56k dialup to speeds of up to 50mbit per second on some providers. Switching from Dial-Up to Broadband for me was a massive step. I first went with AOL back in 2003 and a list of other providers, all who offer a completely different service. With internet technology constantly adapting and networks becoming more scalable, we’ll probably reach insane speeds by 2020.

Music Access
This is the part people love, listening to Music online. There has been a lot of question over the past 10 years over music sharing. Peer-to-Peer programs such as Limewire, Bearshare and a multitude of torrenting programs have become a big hit for music and file sharing, not alot has been done about it, but certain companies such as Spotify and YouTube have certainly made an impact, allowing licensed music to be broadcast for free, in return for a small series of adverts.

TV / Video
This is the market that has changed the most over the last decade, we’ve gone from VHS to DVD to Blueray, then to online services such as BBC iPlayer, YouTube, iTunes, ITVPlayer, Channel 4 on-demand. We’ve also gone from box-standard 20″ televisions, to more larger scale televisions; in most cases up to 70″ with projectors taking a large lead at the moment. We have definitely seen a significant change within the TV / Video market, mainly for the best, with technology constantly adapting, the next 10 years for the TV / Video market is looking very interesting.

Gaming
Back in the late 90’s we all had gaming, even online gaming with games such as Quake and Half-Life – but what we really haven’t seen is the scalability developers have put into these games, firstly with the online gaming market, more developers are being attracted to developing online games rather than single-player offline games, alongside graphics development. I myself had a game of Quake 2 the other day, then a game of Crysis, telling the difference between these two games is greatly immense in a graphics and gameplay relation. New platforms are coming out to allow people to purchase and manage their games easily and flawlessly. I myself have been using the Steam platform for some years now, and I have to say, I very rarely purchase a hard copy of a game.

Google
In the late 90’s, we all saw Google as a small business, allowing users to search the internet for certain things. Since the late 90’s and through the 00’s we’ve saw Google enter new and exciting markets, from search engines to email, online documents, blogs, mobile phones, internet browsers, world viewers, calendars, websites, photo uploading, readers, transators, maps, finance, payment gateways, toolabrs, videos, trends, news, images, desktop clients, groups, instant-messaging and even open-source codes. Google have certainly made a massive impact on the way the internet runs, and I think Google, along with many other companies will expand to make the internet a better place.

So this decade, from the few examples above has been an extraordinary adventure for the technology market, with smartphones being developed on a daily basis, the internet constantly expanding, 500Gbps of traffic moving through the UK PER SECOND it’s looking good for the future.

Have an excellent new year.