Curtain falling on ‘Digital Decade’

While it got off to a rocky start with the overhyped Y2K bug and dotcom bubble, the era dubbed the “Digital Decade” by Microsoft’s Bill Gates has turned out to be a dizzying period of innovation.

“It’s been an amazingly vibrant decade for the Internet and for digital things in general,” said John Abell, New York bureau chief of Wired magazine, which has chronicled the technological leaps and bounds of the past 10 years.

“People simply don’t exist in a non-digital world at all,” Abell told AFP. “Even grandmothers and Luddites all have tools and devices — even if they don’t realize they’re using them — which connect them to a digital world.”

David Pogue, personal technology columnist for The New York Times, points to Apple’s iPod, introduced in 2001, as among the most influential devices of the decade.

“It really revolutionized the way music is distributed and marketed,” said Pogue, who also casts a vote for the Flip pocket camcorder from Pure Digital Technologies.

“In two years it has taken over one-third of the camcorder market and has killed the sales of tape camcorders,” Pogue told AFP.

Pogue also gives a nod to the GPS navigational unit “which changes the way we drive and also has environmental considerations because millions of people spend less time driving around lost.”

Touchscreen smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone featuring thousands of applications are also high on Pogue’s list.

WASHINGTON, Dec 27, 2009 (AFP)