This article is more than 1 year old

Retailer compiles ‘endangered tech’ list

The devices doomed to die in 2010. Apparently

Mobile phone chargers, the mouse and the Wii Remote have topped a list that predicts which of today's technologies face extinction next year.

Self-titled gadget “experts” at online retailer Pixmania have assessed over 2500 gadgets to list the ten technologies which they believe face the greatest risk of “obsoletion” [sic] as we head into 2010.

DVD players top the list. According to Pixmania, DVD players face a huge threat from the rising dominance of Blu-ray, while the growth of movie streaming to consoles, PCs and mobile phones could also spell the format’s demise.

Register Hardware agrees with the list’s number one endangered tech, but we’re not so certain about some of its other predictions.

Mobile phone chargers, for example, come in at number five.

Although most of us have drawers full of old chargers, wireless charging systems – such as the Palm Pre’s Touchstone system – are still in their early days and the development of standardised chargers – which could see fewer new chargers produced – has only just got off the ground.

Only Nokia has been brave enough to ditch the charger altogether and even then only for its low-end N79 Eco phone. It uses a USB cable instead.

Register Hardware isn’t convinced that the computer mouse – which comes in at number nine on the list – will kick the bucket in 2010, either.

However, Pixmania believes that the arrival of Windows 7 and the growing dominance of touchscreen devices will see sales of the humble computer mouse fall throughout next year.

Microsoft’s Project Natal has hogged headlines since its official unveiling on 1 June. And Pixmania is confident that the Xbox 360 motion controller has the potential to see Nintendo’s Wii-mote become another endangered tech next year.

We’re not so sure, though, because Natal will only be available for the Xbox 360, existing global sales of which - roughly 31m - are well below the 56m Wiis already sold around the world.

Other gadgets that made it onto Pixmania’s list of endangered technologies include the 3G laptop dongle, the landline phone, analogue TV and that old 20th Century favourite: the fax machine. ®

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