10 years isn’t far enough in the past. I can’t think of a single thing ubiquitous to every day living that doesn’t still exist in the same capacity now. 2025 is barely different from 2015.
I am sure there might be plenty of niche or specialized tech that fits. But nothing that was widespread and now just gone.
I’m probably an exception, but my interest in physical media has increased this year as streaming services have become increasingly consumer-hostile. It’s unfortunate that many movies and shows have incomplete physical media representation. Some have only DVDs. Others lack even those, too.
10 years isn’t far enough in the past. I can’t think of a single thing ubiquitous to every day living that doesn’t still exist in the same capacity now. 2025 is barely different from 2015.
I am sure there might be plenty of niche or specialized tech that fits. But nothing that was widespread and now just gone.
Thumb drives were a form of currency ten years ago. I go months without using one now, and even then it’s installing an OS for a RPi.
I have an external SSD for backups, but not for sneakernet.
Doing remote tech support for my company, “Just load this on a USB drive.”
😕
“Don’t have one? Not any kind?”
🫤
This was at a software company.
To be fair, at my last company, you needed a special exemption from my manager up to the CEO to plug in a thumb drive.
Probably for the best.
This drives me nuts. I used to pirate stuff for a fee (still do occasionally) and I would only do transfer with thumbdrives.
In 2015, UK consumers spent approximately £1.5 billion on physical entertainment media, including DVDs, Blu-rays, and CDs.
By 2025, that figure has plummeted to under £400 million, with DVDs and Blu-rays now representing less than 10% of total video spend.
In 2015, streaming was growing but still secondary. Netflix had around 5 million UK subscribers, and Spotify Premium was under 2 million.
By 2025, streaming dominates:
2015: Physical Media ~£1.5 billion, Streaming ~£500 million 2025: Physical Media <£400 million, Streaming >£2.5 billion https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/multi-sector/media-nations/2025/media-nations-2025-uk-report.pdf
https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/Industries/tmt/research/digital-consumer-trends.html
I’m probably an exception, but my interest in physical media has increased this year as streaming services have become increasingly consumer-hostile. It’s unfortunate that many movies and shows have incomplete physical media representation. Some have only DVDs. Others lack even those, too.
Yeah, I was going to say zip drives, or optical disks, but you really need to go back 20 years for them to be ubiquitous.
USB-A, maybe? Consumer 2.5" form disk drives?
USB-A is still ubiquitous.