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Seven Products, Concepts, and Ideas That Won't Exist by 2025
Motley Fool ^ | 08/21/2012 | Sean Williams

Posted on 08/21/2012 2:33:22 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

I'm sort of ashamed to admit that Friday night's baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies is the inspiration for this article. As a sidebar to the actual game itself, the broadcasters noted that someone had built a replica DeLorean hovercraft and was riding it around McCovey Cove in San Francisco, Calif.

This got me thinking (yes, a replica hovercraft DeLorean inspired me; laugh all you want), what if we could travel into the past, or better yet, into the future to see what products, concepts, and ideas survived and which ones drifted away. Back to the Future II wasn't exactly the best predictor of what the future would be like. According to the movie, in three years we're supposed to have flying cars and a Pepsi is expected to cost close to $50. Neither of those predictions looks even remotely feasible, although I will give the movie credit for correctly predicting a baseball team in Miami.

So today, I'm going to give you my best Doc Brown and highlight seven products, concepts, and ideas that won't exist by the year 2025. I could well be wrong, but these seven things are a long way from hitting 88 MPH and sending themselves back to better times.

Products

Concepts

Ideas

Foolish roundup
There you have it -- 1.21 gigawatts of products, concepts, and ideas that are destined for extinction by 2025. Let me and your fellow Fools know your take on the above ideas in the comments section below, as well as other products, concepts, and ideas that could fall by the wayside over the next decade.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Society
KEYWORDS: products; technology
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1 posted on 08/21/2012 2:33:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
That doesn't mean the U.S. won't hold its lead in innovation and manufacturing....

Real knee slapper here.

2 posted on 08/21/2012 2:41:47 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
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To: SeekAndFind
He is partially wrong on the cameras, But "point and click" models will prbably be overtaken by camera phones. Truth is, my 50 digital camera blows away the best picture from a cellphone. By 2025, that wont be the case, I would hope anyway!

That said, there is still a very large market for upscale cameras, and superzooms. You simply can't pack that kind of camera-ing in a small package, it violates the laws of optics. (That said, there might be some cool stuff coming eventually with thin film wave guid lensing).

3 posted on 08/21/2012 2:42:45 PM PDT by Paradox (I want Obama defeated. Period.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Not a bad list. They got 2 right out of 7 guesses: 3D TV and the EU.


4 posted on 08/21/2012 2:44:25 PM PDT by InterceptPoint (.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I disagree about the 3-D televisions. People are buying them and 3-D movies are being made. What will eventually change is the need to wear glasses. Eventually this technology will be incorporated into the TVs themselves.


5 posted on 08/21/2012 2:45:21 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The only one I agree with is the EU, and that is conditional. I think some sort of EU like union will exist but it will be smaller and less powerful.


6 posted on 08/21/2012 2:46:53 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: SeekAndFind

“Digital cameras: With new smartphones sporting 8MP cameras, and resolutions increasing yearly, why wouldn’t digital cameras go extinct?”

I disagree with him on this one. The law of physics is never going to allow the same amount of light to be captured by your digital phone as the large lense on a real camera will. There will always be a market for cameras with a variety of lenses.


7 posted on 08/21/2012 2:47:47 PM PDT by MNDude ( Victimhood is the Holy Grail of liberalism)
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To: SeekAndFind
Chances are that if you own a smartphone, the camera in your phone has a higher resolution than the digital camera you own.

1) False even as stated.

2) Pixel count on the focal plane isn't everything. If the lens is crap, the image will be crap.

3) I wonder how much this guy knows about optics? Even with adaptive optics and deformable lenses, size matters. Aperture is king.

8 posted on 08/21/2012 2:50:05 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Paradox

I think the only surviving camera model (unless you’re a serious photographer) will be the camera-printer “instamatic” model. I just saw one the other day, tiny, basic, but prints out a 2x3 photo instantly. That’s exactly what a lot of people want, just a little physical souvenir to give to the subject of the photo.

Other than that, my only difference is that I’d say that the US will remain a superpower...if we get rid of Obama in this election, wipe up every trace of his foul passage through our national history, and go on with our lives.


9 posted on 08/21/2012 2:50:54 PM PDT by livius
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To: SeekAndFind

The stories of US demise are greatly exaggerated. Most of China’s money comes from the US. Without us buying their junk, who are they going to sell it to?


10 posted on 08/21/2012 2:54:19 PM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: Jonty30
I disagree about the 3-D televisions. People are buying them and 3-D movies are being made. What will eventually change is the need to wear glasses. Eventually this technology will be incorporated into the TVs themselves.

I think the sales of 3D TVs are deceptive. Most new TVs and Blu-ray players are 3D whether the consumer wants it or not. I went ahead an bought a couple of pairs of active 3D glasses for my new 3D TV this year; but I'm not blown away by the technology. For the most part, 3D is just various 2D images which seem to be in 3D in relation to each other. the objects themselves still look 2D.

I admit I am looking forward to the Blu-ray releases announced for later this year from the golden age of 3D: Dial 'M' for Murder, House of Wax and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

11 posted on 08/21/2012 2:54:27 PM PDT by Sans-Culotte ( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)
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To: SeekAndFind
Regular digital cameras maybe (OK, probably), but digital SLR cameras will still be around for professional use.

3D TV: I can believe this one, unless they go to the IMAX type of thing, with polarized goggles instead of those stupid click-shutter need-to-be-connected-via-USB glasses. Then they need to make movies and such that don't try to wow you with the whole "3D experience". Make the 3D more subtle and it will seem more realistic.

12 posted on 08/21/2012 2:54:44 PM PDT by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: Paradox
He is partially wrong on the cameras, But "point and click" models will prbably be overtaken by camera phones.

I agree. I don't care how many megapixels a camera has if it has a crappy little lense. With cameras, optics are everthing.

13 posted on 08/21/2012 3:00:08 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
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To: jeffc

My 3D glasses are passive. I just put them on, similar to Imax.

However, the technology has developed to the point where it’s built into the tv itself, at least within the laboratories, which means commercial viability isn’t too far off.


14 posted on 08/21/2012 3:04:02 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: SeekAndFind
He didn't mention flat screens. I don't think they'll exist in another decade, except in the same sense that people still have CRT televisions kicking around in the basement. Holography and iGlasses will be sufficiently advanced that people will want to throw a pair on and go into the frame rather than just view a flat version on a screen.

I could be wrong but so what, wanna fight about it?

http://gizmodo.com/5923321/would-apple-iglass-be-better-than-googles-glasses


15 posted on 08/21/2012 3:04:21 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (Goode over evil. Voting for mitt or obie is like throwing your country away.)
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To: Inyo-Mono

Have you checked the Nokia purview? It’s supposed to be a generational leap for smartphone cameras. Im not saying it’s the equivalent of lens cameras.


16 posted on 08/21/2012 3:06:08 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Televisions are a passing fad. I’m betting big on radio. I think we’ll all be huddled around large radio cabinets soon.


17 posted on 08/21/2012 3:08:19 PM PDT by youngidiot (The name's Bond. James Bond. James Bond Jovi.)
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To: SeekAndFind
For some perspective, here are things that "Those In The know" have decreed will be obsolete by this year.

Here, too.

And here.

18 posted on 08/21/2012 3:08:27 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Sans-Culotte

When 3D movies first came out, I didn’t think too much of it either. When I went to see Avatar 3D I got sick during the scenes when the protagonist was trying to ride his bird.

But I find it enjoyable when a 3D action causes me to react as if something is coming at me.


19 posted on 08/21/2012 3:10:57 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Simply put, people will be looking toward China to dictate global growth in the future first, not the United States.”

B.S.

The only reason such an oppressive slave-state grew in the last few decades is because of traitors transferring wealth and knowledge from “free” states like ours.

Innovation and development are always stifled in a slave state. There hasn’t been a single Chinese invention under communism that even came close to the constant breakthroughs coming from the USA. People can’t invent or think out of the box when they live in a Chinese factory (aka prison) their entire lives and do nothing but assembly line work.

They simply take our designs, processes, machines etc and make slaves execute it. Often times, even their best engineers can’t figure out our machines. Several colleagues of mine were often sent to China for consulting work when their own engineers were stumped.

China, in its present political state, can only become temporarily “first” if the free world rots...


20 posted on 08/21/2012 3:22:44 PM PDT by varyouga
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