The period from 1999 to 2009 saw many innovations and iterations of consumer electronics technology. Some of these were truly revolutionary; others simply controversial that received a lot of tongue time. Most importantly, these new devices and formats changed the scenery forever.
10. 7.1 Surround: The first major change since digital surround took stride in 1998, 7.1 audio was embraced by nearly every major manufacturer. Placing a pair of speakers in the rear of the room to augment the (now) side surrounds, this format was supported by Dolby EX and DTS-ES. Although not as widely accepted by movie studios, hardware companies did a great job imitating native 7.1 from 5.1 sources. Recognizing the benefits of the format, it is now standard on Blu-Ray.
9. DVI: A surprise entry, DVI gets a nod of respect as the digital connection icebreaker to the average consumer, paving the way for the now-ubiquitous HDMI. DVI does many of the things that HDMI does, excluding audio. Significantly, older DVI spec is still current today, and is found on many PCs and laptops.
8. Blu-Ray: Blu-Ray is still toward the bottom, due to the fact that consumers have not embraced the format to the degree that DVD has. Offering lossless audio and 1080p video, Blu-Ray, properly authored, offers six times the data resolution and far superior audio to its DVD sibling.
7. Xbox 360: Microsoft's successor to 2001's Xbox, the Xbox 360, despite its rampant hardware issues, changed the landscape for the gaming industry. The processing power and studio influence, combined with the relative ease for developers to program, have all but buried the PC game market, and placed once-dominant Sony in a decided back-seat position. The Xbox 360 has the dominant gaming franchise in Halo, and is the leader in online gaming. Xbox Live offers a rich multiplayer experience, so much so that studios place enormous significance on that portion, and for many gamers, is the purchase decision-maker.
6. DLP: Texas Instrument's digital light processing display format brought consumers out of the single-chip LCD display fog, once fraught with dead pixels and bad blacks. Using a mirror chip roughly the size of a slide, DLP changed the game for front projection, all but killing CRT in
rear projection, and allowed manufacturers to fully embrace digital displays in its entirety.
5. Automatic room correction: Although consumers are now used to this feature, automatic room calibration on today's receivers allow potentially better results in terms of speaker level settings and distance. A new feature introduced was the presence of EQ settings, which listened to the individual speakers and their interaction with the room. Although typically a stopgap for actual acoustic treatment and system calibration, versions such as Audyssey, Yamaha's YPAO, and Pioneer's MCACC have made huge differences in many a system.
4. HDMI: This entry sits in the middle of the pack, due its non-essential nature and inconsistent reliability. Required by formats such as Blu-Ray, HDMI has experienced ten revisions since its debut in Fall 2003. Favored by Hollywood studios for its copy protection capabilities, HDMI is, for the foreseeable future, the digital A/V connection of choice by the industry.
3. Internet retailers: Although not a format nor technology, the internet has inexorably changed the way electronics are purchased. Consumers are spending over twice as much online overall as in 1999, with smaller retailers especially feeling the pricing pinch. Due to the widespread acceptance on the internet as a purchasing outlet, many consumers are focusing less on brands offered and more on price. In the consumer electronics realm, online retailers have been allowed to spring up, due to easier distribution and lack of need for a physical storefront. As a result, competition has increased overall in the marketplace, with brick and mortar retailers taking a service-provider approach (focusing less on hardware sales as in years' past) while keeping price competition local.
2. Flat panel displays: Replacing tube sets entirely, flat panel displays of all sizes now adorn the walls of all income brackets. Due to incredibly aggressive pricing and efficient manufacturing, flat panels now dominate the display market in size/price ratios that would have been
laughable in the CRT age. With emerging technology such as OLED (organic light-emitting diode), displays are poised to go even thinner and more efficient.
1. Apple's iPod: The clear winner, the iPod not only changed the way people listen to music, but fundamentally altered the way they acquire it. The iPod is one of the few pieces of technology that changed the industry that provides the content for the device. The music industry has taken notice (as have artists) by providing content online at Apple's iTunes Music Store, and with certain artists only distributing digitally. The iPod over time has gotten smaller, increased capacity, and pioneered the Click Wheel, an interface that many now see as the standard for non-touchscreen applications.
Some will agree and others disagree on this list. One thing that is certain is that the influence and consumer feedback on these technologies was witnessed firsthand by yours truly, and based on those observations, this list is in good stead.
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