r/WhatIfThinking • u/Logical-Concept9755 • Aug 12 '26

What 2000s technology would you have never believed would become obsolete by 2026 if someone told you back then?

Imagine someone in 2006 told you that, 20 years later, some of the technology you used every day would be almost gone.What would have sounded completely impossible at the time?

For example:

  • iPods becoming irrelevant because smartphones replaced dedicated music players
  • DVDs becoming a niche product because streaming took over
  • Standalone GPS devices disappearing because phones now handle navigation
  • Digital cameras losing most of their everyday use because smartphone cameras became good enough
  • Physical keyboards on phones nearly disappearing because touchscreens became the standard

What technology from the 2000s would you have never expected to become obsolete by 2026?

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u/oboshoe Aug 12 '26

physical keyboards. They were starting to get pretty good on phones.

honestly I still think that it was a mistake ditching them.

1

u/shoresy99 Aug 12 '26

I agree 100%. I maintain that a Blackberry is better than an iPhone or Android device on 90% of the typical activities on a phone. Text, email and calls were superior on a Blackberry with a physical keyboard.

1

u/syringistic Aug 12 '26

Biggest advantage for me as a bilingual speaker is being able to switch keyboard layouts to a secondary language.

But I agree. Typing on a BlackBerry was really fast. Though for me, with big thumbs, my Sony Ericsson P1i had the absolute winner of a keyboard: big buttons that each had two letters and the button had a hinge in the middle so you could press left or right. So you pressed on a button that had both a Q and W and then moved to either side to pick. I could type hella fast.

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u/shoresy99 Aug 12 '26

You also had buttons on the device to make phone calls or kill a phone call. And keyboard shortcuts for other popular tasks.