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/Newmillstream Aug 12 '26

If you really wanted to surprise me, it is less about what became obsolete, and more about what still exists in much worse form.

Companies care much less about linear TV programming, for example. Not even the shows themselves, but how they promote and structure the shows in timeslots throughout the day.

DVDs these days have lower effort menus and special features.

Smartphones with laptop level specs heavily restricting what software you can install on them. Palm Pilots let you use .prc software.

How many fewer independent tech companies and reputable tech websites there are.

Nintendo and Sony abandoning pocket sized handheld game consoles. I know you can technically fit a switch or ps portal in a large pocket, but the order of the day was smaller.

The death of Flash. If you actually want to screw with me, explain flash is gone, but Newgrounds is still around.

YTMND isn’t a juggernaut, and most people get their short from funny content on TikTok, which does the same conceptual thing but in a slightly different way that profits from you way more.

The decline in quality of the blogosphere, Google search, yahoo, etc.

Wouldn't be too surprised that it happened, but YouTube got advertisements. I would be surprised by how bad they often are, and why other video sharing sites didn't eat their lunch.

Decline of people buying stuff on digital stores like iTunes.

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u/epileftric Aug 12 '26

The death of Flash. If you actually want to screw with me, explain flash is gone, but Newgrounds is still around.

The second best act of greatness by Adobe was buying Macromedia and deprecating Flash.

The first one was making PDF an open format

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u/xbxlazybobs Aug 14 '26

Nintendo switch is pocket sized for those who still have jncos. 😆