Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Future Industry Extinction





I found this article both sad and compelling. What cultural and technological and behavioral trends are expected to kick what have been fixtures of our consumer landscape to the curb?
Last year Kodak stopped making 35mm slide projectors and Polaroid recently made its last camera.
When I first got a home Internet connection in 1995, I figured that newspapers, or at least the classified section, would be dead before 2000. Obviously it didn't happen that fast but now it is starting. The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News recently cut their deliveries to 3 days a week and are asking customers to go to their websites. PC Magazine recently announced that it will be going to an online-only format. Not only is it incredibly cheaper to publish online but it is much more environmentally friendly. As laptops get smaller and more ergonomically friendly and printing and labor costs become higher, along with environmental pressures, will we start to see this with all magazines and more books?
Other than these 10 industries listed in this article, what else could be GONE by 2017? Maybe... the gas station? Quick-lube oil change depots? Libraries? (Imagine the entire Library of Congress online?) The coal industry? If Lester Brown is right... Civilization?
(Hi, Future Steve... I'll bet you're cracking up at this one right now.)

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