Top Tech Innovations in the Last 30 Years

Written by Editor

Tuesday, 24 February 2009 08:57

A world transformed is an understatement and many of the great business's and services we enjoy would not even exist without these innovations. Try to imagine a world with no emails, no websites for research, no online shopping sites. no iSold It stores to drop off your items to sell online as a service. It would be a very different world.

Top Tech Innovations in the Last 30 Years
Posted by Retail Insight

Innovation is a word we toss around every day in the technology field. But authentic innovation is more than mere invention or advancement. Think of the Internet, mobile phones and microprocessors, to name a few. Here is a list of the most important innovations in the last 30 years prepared by the Wharton School of Business. See if you agree.

I love creating best-of lists and finding out what other people think should be on them. It would have been fun to poll the smart people I know in retailing, technology and the analyst communities to see what we would have come up with on a top IT innovations list, something I had planned to do one day but never got around to.

Fortunately, some talented people at Knowledge@Wharton, a communications division at the Wharton School of Business, did. Knowledge@Wharton is a fantastic resource that Greg Buzek, president of IHL Consultant and a good friend of mine, turned me onto last year.

In a report called "A World Transformed: What Are the Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years?", published February 18, 2009, the authors defined innovation as something new that alters the landscape around it, creates lasting and widespread change, solves an important problem, and opens up broad opportunities for growth and development.

Some other factors the judges considered were: impact on quality of life, fulfill a compelling need, exhibit a "wow" factor, change the way business is conducted, increase efficiency, spark new innovations, and create a new industry.

Based on these criteria a panel of eight judges received 1,200 entries from around the world and winnowed them down to 30. A number of good entries did not make the list, such as the mute button and suitcase wheels, both of which I consider worthy choices. And many were in fields other than information technology.

But a large number of innovations on the list are near and dear to the hearts of RIS readers. Here are the IT innovations that made the grade, in order of importance:

1. Internet, broadband, WWW (browser and html)
2. PC/laptop computers
3. Mobile phones
4. E-mail
7. Microprocessors
8. Fiber optics
9. Office software (spreadsheets, word processors)
11. Open source software and services (e.g., Linux, Wikipedia)
15. Online shopping/ecommerce/auctions
16. Media file compression (jpeg, mpeg, mp3)
20. Social networking via the Internet
21. Graphic user interface (GUI)
26. Bar codes and scanners
29. SRAM flash memory

It is hardly a surprise that the Internet, combined with broadband, browsers and HTML, topped the list. No innovation has changed the world faster or more profoundly, creating whole new industries and technologies along the way. Almost every aspect of business and social relations today is touched by the Internet and the industries it has created on an international scale.

PCs and laptop computers ranked number two and are related to the Internet thanks to connectivity in the digital realm. Plus PCs and laptops connect with multiple devices that have been created in the last 30 years, including digital cameras, digital music players and wireless printers.

The list is fascinating for its non-IT innovations, too, many of which have also changed our lives. These include: DNA testing and sequencing, laser surgery, GPS systems and stents.

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