4 ms·

It feels like we ran out in the first decade since the iPhone (2007-2017) and have been running on fumes since. Can you name some world changing consumer app or

It feels like we ran out in the first decade since the iPhone (2007-2017) and have been running on fumes since. Can you name some world changing consumer app or company outside of AI fluff that came to be in that post 2017 to end of 2022 period when chatgpt was released?

AbstractH24 2y ago
Slack, Zoom, TikTok And those are just off the top of my head
- robenkleene 2y ago
  Those all predate 2017: - Slack: 2013 - Zoom: 2011 - TikTok: 2016 Based on "Initial Release" on Wikipedia.
- singpolyma3 2y ago
  Neither slack nor zoom did anything new or interesting. Just a clone of stable tech that worked out in marketing
  - baby_souffle 2y ago
    Maybe they didn't have innovative functionality initially but the user experience was certainly better. Microsoft fumbled Skype and nobody was putting together convenient apis on top of IRC...
    - entropicdrifter 2y ago
      Right, so iterations that ate up the old-school competition, not revolutions
      - brookst 2y ago
        What was the last major tech company that was a revolution and not mere iteration?
        samrus 2y ago
        Maybe Netflix?
        brookst 2y ago
        That’s a good one. Which suggests Amazon as well; similar revolution in distribution and scale. But there were companies shipping DVDs before Netflix, and also companies streaming movies online before them. So really a marketing / operations / distribution revolution.
        entropicdrifter 2y ago
        Netflix and Amazon were the first to effectively scale their revolutions up to mainstream accessibility that made them clearly superior to the competition. You could say they brought already-simmering revolutions to boil. Google was initially revolutionary just because their search engine actually worked incredibly well back before people started trying to game their rankings
  - zombiwoof 2y ago
    Slack was skype
    - kulahan 2y ago
      Absolutely not. Skype figured out how to build an integrated login experience. Every morning using slack I keep having to remind myself it’s not early FOSS!
KoolKat23 2y ago
Sad to say: Tiktok, Only Fans, Discord
- morkalork 2y ago
  According to Wikipedia, Discord is 2015, Only Fans and TikTok are 2016. I'm as surprised as you are, I'd like to be proven wrong here!
- forgetfreeman 2y ago
  But these are all marketing wins. The underlying technology (let people post shit and talk to one another) had been stable for like a decade before they came along.
  - daedrdev 2y ago
    No, they are product development wins. Discord is far more popular than alternatives because they provide a far superior product that also has many normal features that their competition somehow fails on, like voice chat, video chat, steaming, images and videos in chat that don't disappear, spam protection and good moderator tools, etc.
    - kulahan 2y ago
      It’s an incredibly buggy experience with a user interface that fails many basic design cues (like not hiding things until you mouse over, not making the friends list icon inexplicably identical to a server icon and also the add server icon, etc.) It’s popular because they figured out and unbelievably low-friction method to get users into the ecosystem. Being able to do everything online without installing anything was huge at the time. You had an account in like 2 clicks. THAT was a thing of beauty.
  - emseetech 2y ago
    | The underlying technology ... had been stable That's my point. There are still creative ways we can use or improve stable technology to build new consumer applications. I'm not seeing much creativity lately.
quantified 2y ago
Tiktok was released in its current form in 2017, I believe. Is that before the period you're asking about?
pedalpete 2y ago
I think this is the cycle. Take a look at the S curve, things move in jumps with leveling out/adaption periods in between.
Spooky23 2y ago
There’s a lot of B2B stuff. How much easier is it to manage and operate technology in 2025 than it was in 2005 or 2015? I have three core tech teams with 12-18 people. I’d need 500+ to do what I do today in 2005, assuming the tech could do it. Breakthrough B2C products don’t appear annually. But everything is better. Apple Maps can estimate my travel time for a 300 mile drive with 5 minutes. I bought a last minute flight to Rome last summer knowing nothing about Rome or speaking any Italian and I did fine, thanks to iPhone and the mobile app ecosystem.

AbstractH24 2y ago

Slack, Zoom, TikTok And those are just off the top of my head

robenkleene 2y ago
Those all predate 2017: - Slack: 2013 - Zoom: 2011 - TikTok: 2016 Based on "Initial Release" on Wikipedia.
singpolyma3 2y ago
Neither slack nor zoom did anything new or interesting. Just a clone of stable tech that worked out in marketing
- baby_souffle 2y ago
  Maybe they didn't have innovative functionality initially but the user experience was certainly better. Microsoft fumbled Skype and nobody was putting together convenient apis on top of IRC...
  - entropicdrifter 2y ago
    Right, so iterations that ate up the old-school competition, not revolutions
    - brookst 2y ago
      What was the last major tech company that was a revolution and not mere iteration?
      - samrus 2y ago
        Maybe Netflix?
        brookst 2y ago
        That’s a good one. Which suggests Amazon as well; similar revolution in distribution and scale. But there were companies shipping DVDs before Netflix, and also companies streaming movies online before them. So really a marketing / operations / distribution revolution.
        entropicdrifter 2y ago
        Netflix and Amazon were the first to effectively scale their revolutions up to mainstream accessibility that made them clearly superior to the competition. You could say they brought already-simmering revolutions to boil. Google was initially revolutionary just because their search engine actually worked incredibly well back before people started trying to game their rankings
- zombiwoof 2y ago
  Slack was skype
  - kulahan 2y ago
    Absolutely not. Skype figured out how to build an integrated login experience. Every morning using slack I keep having to remind myself it’s not early FOSS!

KoolKat23 2y ago

Sad to say: Tiktok, Only Fans, Discord

morkalork 2y ago
According to Wikipedia, Discord is 2015, Only Fans and TikTok are 2016. I'm as surprised as you are, I'd like to be proven wrong here!
forgetfreeman 2y ago
But these are all marketing wins. The underlying technology (let people post shit and talk to one another) had been stable for like a decade before they came along.
- daedrdev 2y ago
  No, they are product development wins. Discord is far more popular than alternatives because they provide a far superior product that also has many normal features that their competition somehow fails on, like voice chat, video chat, steaming, images and videos in chat that don't disappear, spam protection and good moderator tools, etc.
  - kulahan 2y ago
    It’s an incredibly buggy experience with a user interface that fails many basic design cues (like not hiding things until you mouse over, not making the friends list icon inexplicably identical to a server icon and also the add server icon, etc.) It’s popular because they figured out and unbelievably low-friction method to get users into the ecosystem. Being able to do everything online without installing anything was huge at the time. You had an account in like 2 clicks. THAT was a thing of beauty.
- emseetech 2y ago
  | The underlying technology ... had been stable That's my point. There are still creative ways we can use or improve stable technology to build new consumer applications. I'm not seeing much creativity lately.

quantified 2y ago

Tiktok was released in its current form in 2017, I believe. Is that before the period you're asking about?

pedalpete 2y ago

I think this is the cycle. Take a look at the S curve, things move in jumps with leveling out/adaption periods in between.

Spooky23 2y ago

There’s a lot of B2B stuff. How much easier is it to manage and operate technology in 2025 than it was in 2005 or 2015? I have three core tech teams with 12-18 people. I’d need 500+ to do what I do today in 2005, assuming the tech could do it. Breakthrough B2C products don’t appear annually. But everything is better. Apple Maps can estimate my travel time for a 300 mile drive with 5 minutes. I bought a last minute flight to Rome last summer knowing nothing about Rome or speaking any Italian and I did fine, thanks to iPhone and the mobile app ecosystem.