The Tech Endangered Species List 2012

For every Apple and Microsoft, there are a multitude of brands which are crushed in the wake of progress but competition is so merciless that even brands and products we once thought invincible look like they are headed into extinction.

Recent casualties include  webOS and Palm, the HP TouchPad, Flip Video cameras, Symbian, Microsoft’s Zune player and Kin phones which we can say no longer make an impact in the industry because they are all but gone.

We look at some of the companies and products that might not be around in the future and that have made out tech endangered species list.

MP3 Players- The iPod ended the MP3 market as well as the PMP (Personal Media Player) market and now smartphones and tablets are the devices that people use to consume music and video. Standalone music players don’t seem to make any sense in the marketplace.

CDs and DVDs- Blu-Ray didn’t really take off, CDs are on their way out and DVD’s will be put down by streaming rental services and torrent sites. On demand video consumption is where we are headed.

CompactFlash and SD storage- Seeing as how capacities of microSD cards are increasing and prices are going down, bulky CF cards and eventually SD cards will give way to the smaller format except for very specific uses. A shame since nothing matches the durability of CompactFlash.

Platter Based Hard Drives- Once SSD (Solid State Drives) become universally more affordable and can deliver higher speeds and capacities, the hard drive will eventually be relegated to backup storage solution.

Netbooks- Once tablets come down in price they will take over the netbook market. With larger and better screens, better portability and a multitude of applications, tablets and slates are destined to boom at the same price of dinky notebooks.

SIM Cards- We already have micro-SIMs, we hear they are working on nano-SIMs. The one aspect of the mobile phone that has remained pretty much unchanged will get a dramatic redesign or disappear altogether in favor of something else.

Point and Shoot Cameras- Cheaper point and shoot cameras are doomed. Smartphones are starting to sport some really powerful optics and sensors (Nokia N8, iPhone 4S) plus apps can really enhance photography and compact cameras with interchangeable lenses are almost the same size yet more powerful.

Standalone video cameras- We now have smartphones that shoot 1080p resolution video and allow in-camera editing. Standalone, non-professional video cameras will cease to make sense once users realize the capture quality of their pocket device is just as good.

DSLRs- They aren’t going away but we believe DLSRs will become much smaller and be more about the technology than just trying to copy the paradigm of film cameras. Lenses will be more compact and sensors and low light capabilities will just get better.

Adobe Flash on Mobile – Flash has failed to really port to mobile and there are rumors that everyone is looking to HTML5 as the eventual video and animation standard for the web. Flash crashes phones and tablets, uses us battery life and aside from being able to push Internet video, it is starting to show its age. Microsoft’s Silverlight, a Flash competitor, is said to be at its last legs as well.

Cable TV- It is a matter of time before streaming Internet TV approximates the quality of Cable but with better on demand programming and less time wasted on scanning through channels we don’t want to watch will put cable at risk of extinction. There are also a number of shows that might consider a direct to Internet version if they aren’t picked up by networks.

Nintendo DS/3DS – Unless they change their game delivery method (cartridges) go beyond 3D as a feature and find a way to compete with mobile devices, we see the venerable successor to the Game Boy riding away in the sunset.

Sony PlayStation Portable and Vita- Will developers support clunky and expensive portable game consoles which have limited appeal or will they develop apps for mobile operating systems that have similar power and performance and better distribution systems through app stores. If handheld consoles like the PSP or the Vita fail to evolve, they will eventually lose their place among gamers.

Notebooks- We’re not killing off the notebook segment but we believe the traditional chunky notebook will eventually give way to the ultrabooks. With cloud storage, less use of optical drives and smaller processors and drives notebooks don’t need to be thick or heavy devices. Prices for thinner and equally powerful devices

Video games on discs- As online services like Steam have shown, it is possible to deliver PC video games through the Internet and cut the line from developer to gamer. Faster bandwidth, higher data caps and storage become the new issue as console and PC games to be downloaded.

Set top streaming video boxes- Smart TVs are becoming better at running streaming video services and pretty soon every TV will be smart, Internet connected and run apps. This means death to AppleTV, Roku, GoogleTV and other standalone Internet video boxes which will be integrated into the screen.