The 1984 Tech Blog

The legendary 1984 Apple Macintosh Commercial

The evolution of the TV is a perfect example of how technology has progressed over the past 75 years or so. When the TV originally came out it was small, boxy, came in black and white, and didn’t provide great picture quality. The television stayed this way for quite some without much change. Eventually TVs started being a little bigger and then the color TV was introduced. At this time TVs were still quite small and the picture quality wasn’t very good.

The next step for the TV was an improvement in picture quality and a dramatic increase in size. At this time manufacturers began producing “big screen” TVs and began improving picture quality. The evolution to this point took quite some time and into the mid 1990s people were still using the large boxy TVs. This was the age of the “big screen” but these TVs not only had big screens but were BIG altogether and took up tons of space.

From this time the progression of the TV picked up quickly. Manufacturers were able to develop HD, plasma, and LCD TVs at this time which no only dramatically increased picture quality but also dramatically reduced the size of televisions. Televisions were now only 3-4 inches thick rather than 1-2 feet thick. These types of TVs were around for several years as the cream of the crop but now manufacturers have come out with LED TVs which provide even richer colors and an even smaller TV. TVs are now being made with a 1.5 inch thickness and their overall weight has again dropped dramatically. Now the question is when will they come out with TVs that are as thin as a laptop computer screen. I think its only a matter of time.

As technology progresses in all areas each advancement or break through has a shorter period in the pinnacle before something better is develop. This has been seen time and time again with all tech products and I don’t expect it to be any different with TVs. My expectation is that we will get .5 inch thick or smaller and better picture quality TVs within 3 years. The LED TV is great but it’s life span at the top will be even small than what we saw with Plasma and LCD TVs.

As time keeps passing it is quite amazing how fast the tech industry continues to advance. I am amazed everyday at how fast things change. It seems like just a few years ago everyone was using large box shaped televisions that took up the whole room and suddenly we have gone from that to a 3-4 thick TV and now down to the new LED TVs that are only 1.5 inches this.  I can remember the days of portable cassette tape players and even portable CD players. Now we have Ipods that hold tons of songs and are a lot small. I also remember no cell phones, the up and coming car phone, and even the huge cell phones that appeared at first. Now we have cell phones that are also Ipods and digital cameras at the same time. No need for any of those 3 device because you can get them all in one. Heck, your cell phone can even work like a computer if you get one of the cool new touch, HTML rich browser phones.

The increased rate of technological advances over the past 5-10 years has been astounding. None of the advances have surprised me greatly but it’s just crazy how fast they are coming about these days. I have heard that scientist are now working on wireless electricity. Imagine that! No more plugs out outlets needed.

As time passes I see the rate of technological advancement to continue at a very high rate. We are at a point where new technology is out of date within 12 months and I see this continuing. Of course I will not even attempt to predict what products we will have next because that has been proven to be way to hard. Perhaps a TV that is equivalent to a standard glass window? Now that would be amazing! Enjoy the next 10-20 years because they are going to bring about some amazing new advances and with that some freakin amazing products.