5 Gadgets You Won’t See Around by 2020

Standalone GPS systems are just one of the many
gadgets to bid farewell by 2020.

With more and more high-end, state-of-the-art cool gadgets and electronics coming their way, it's sad that some of the even affordable gadgets we used to have and relied upon have to go off the shelf by 2020. Some will simply turn obsolete, while others have to be killed off because they are no longer money-making hits. Sure, you might see them for sale at some specialty stores, but don't expect them to be manufactured for mass-market consumption.

Standalone GPS Systems

Analysts have figured out that spending for a $200-up for GPS systems is coming its near end. Charles S. Golvin, an analyst at Forrester, a market research firm, envisions mobile phone to overtake standalone GPS systems, while it  will be a standard requirement for every car maker to install GPS system, so much a toll to standalone GPS manufacturers.

E-Readers

Although it seems that E-readers are here to stay, thanks to its constant changes to match the needs of users, it won't be that long and it is foreseen that the last batch of E-Readers will be manufactured before the decade ends. One reason is that tablets will take the place of E-readers, just like Smartphones taking the place of iPhones.

Feature Phones

With the emergence of Smartphones, feature phones are seeing its days numbered. Tim Bajarin, market analyst for Creative Strategies, foresees that by 2015, as much as 80 percent of all the phones in the market are Smartphones, while in 2018, every phone sold in the market in are Smartphones. The drop in sales of feature phones is due to the fact that smartphones provide more and better than feature phones, one thing that consumers are willing to spend on.              

Low-End Digital Cameras

With the coming of digital cameras, flip cameras went off the shelf. Now that Smartphones have conquered market, low-end digital cameras are starting to bid adieu. With convenient phones that users can keep on their pockets wherever they go, consumers are less inclined to take cameras with them. Likewise, most phones these days carry as much as 8-megapixel cameras that were recently unique only with digital cameras.

CDs and DVDs

CDs and DVDs, which are still used to record and store files and contents, are expected to go off the market by the end of the decade because of the rapid shift to digital distribution. Better streaming options for movies and music, digital downloads, and high quality storage options also put the toll on CDs and DVDs. In 10 years time, consumers won't need a physical media to move and share files the way CDs and DVDs do.  

Indeed, with more and more new gadgets finding their way to mass appeal, it's bye-bye time to these old, handy gadgets.