These products and services had a good run but are now obsolete. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most famous items and services that are no longer widely used.
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00:00Filmmakers and film fans have embraced this format, but only in the last couple of years has it really started to take off.
00:08Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most famous items and services that are no longer widely used.
00:14Remember, I'm in here, and you hear me typing.
00:21Number 30, landline phones. Plus is at the end of the line for traditional phone service in California.
00:28It's amazing how quickly phone technology accelerates.
00:31Back in 2003, the CIA World Factbook estimated that there were nearly 1.3 billion landline phones in use around the world.
00:39Now, you'd be hard pressed to find even one.
00:41OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but there's no denying that cell phones have greatly eclipsed the landline and made them almost obsolete.
00:48By 2013, just 10 years after the CIA study, 91 percent of American adults owned a cell phone.
00:55And by 2022, three out of four American households exclusively used a cell phone, with only one percent of households only using a landline.
01:02Indeed, some countries are beginning to terminate their landline networks, effectively signaling the beginning of the end.
01:08And now we're talking about AT&T wants to get rid of it in all of California.
01:13Number 29, overhead projectors.
01:15And schools all had these, and most business offices that did any sort of presentation stuff would have one, too.
01:24Anyone who went to school between the 60s and 2000s surely remembers those overhead projectors that the teachers used to roll into the room.
01:31They were bulky and heavy.
01:33They often took up a good amount of space, and the projections often appeared brownish and hard to read.
01:38These were a common fixture in classrooms around the world, being relatively cheap and affording some type of interactive education with students.
01:45But now, thanks to new tech like interactive whiteboards and digital projection, these clunky things, much like the slider projector before it,
01:52have been taken out back and thrown in the dumpster.
01:54Hey, old silver, away!
01:57Number 28, nicogel.
01:59This is the smoking section.
02:00I don't care if it's the smoking section.
02:02All right?
02:03She directed it right in my face.
02:04Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, cigarette smoking was being phased out in public areas, so people sought the alternatives.
02:11Enter nicogel, which was marketed as a water-soluble gel containing liquefied tobacco.
02:16Basically, this liquid came in little packets that could be applied to the skin discreetly to deliver a dose of nicotine.
02:23However, most people didn't consider it a good alternative, as it contained a fraction of the nicotine in a cigarette.
02:28It was also never dermatologically tested, and no independent research was conducted into its safety.
02:34And now, with the rise of other cigarette alternatives like vaping, nicogel is no longer available.
02:39In every squirt of nicogel, you've got a tenth of the tobacco that you normally find in a single cigarette.
02:44Number 27.
02:45Dedicated GPS devices.
02:47GPS check?
02:48Yes.
02:48Yes.
02:49Roger that.
02:50OK.
02:51Your destination is 2,560 miles ahead.
02:55Wally World, here we come.
02:57Once upon a time, handheld GPS devices seemed like the future in a box.
03:02You type in your destination, anywhere you wanted to go, and boom, there were the exact directions to get there.
03:07No more paper maps, no more printing out directions on MapQuest.
03:11And by once upon a time, we mean like 10 years ago.
03:14But now, everyone has a GPS in their pocket, thanks to smartphones.
03:18And even if they don't, most modern cars come equipped with one already installed.
03:22Dedicated personal navigation assistants are still popular with certain outdoor enthusiasts.
03:27But for day-to-day use, their function has been taken over by other devices.
03:31With this baby, we'll never be lost.
03:37Number 26.
03:39Aspergum.
03:39This is the cold and flu season, with its occasional sore throats and aches and pains.
03:44That's why I carry Aspergum, the sore throat medication that helps all over.
03:48Just like GPS devices, Aspergum once seemed revolutionary.
03:52Introduced in the 1920s, this was a medicinal chewing gum that contained aspirin.
03:57The gum itself was simply used as a delivery system, containing 227 milligrams of the drug and coming in both cherry and orange flavors.
04:05Aspergum was paramount in the discovery of aspirin's anti-blood clotting effects.
04:09And it helped the drug become widely used in mitigating the likes of strokes and heart attacks.
04:13Alas, the gum was finally discontinued in 2006.
04:17There's one thing I gotta know.
04:20Got any aspirins?
04:22Number 25.
04:23Library card catalogs.
04:25Chances are you've never used one of the most important 20th century tools for library research.
04:31The card catalog.
04:32Libraries are an important resource, but man, they were a pain in the butt before the advent of computers.
04:38It's incredibly difficult organizing thousands upon thousands of books, so a complex filing system was needed.
04:44Enter the card catalogs, which are basically enormous chests of drawers containing little cards on every book in the library.
04:50If you wanted a book, you had to know the author, title, or subject, then find the corresponding card in the seemingly endless sea of them.
04:57Once the card was finally found, it told you where the book was in the library.
05:01But thanks to online public access catalogs, now we can just type it into a computer and get the location instantly.
05:07Magic.
05:08I am on a curiosity voyage, and I need my paddles to travel.
05:12Number 24.
05:13Napster and LimeWire.
05:15Well, then what was your latest pranuer?
05:16Well, I founded an internet company that let folks download and share music for free.
05:21Kind of like Napster?
05:22They didn't last long, but the impacts that Napster and LimeWire had on the internet are indescribable.
05:28Launched in 1999, Napster popularized the concept of peer-to-peer file sharing, effectively giving birth to internet piracy.
05:35Of course, this resulted in a ton of backlash and legal difficulties, forcing the app to close for good in 2002.
05:41A number of alternatives emerged in its absence, including the enormously popular LimeWire, which by 2007 was installed on a third of the world's computers.
05:50The program was shut down in 2010, but the internet and the distribution of media was never the same.
05:56Nearly 25 years ago, the way we accessed our favorite tunes changed overnight.
06:01Number 23.
06:02Typewriters.
06:03Whenever I'm in here, you hear me typing.
06:09Nothing beats the distinct clack, clack, clacking of a typewriter.
06:12From the late 1800s to the 1980s, offices were filled with choruses of that wonderful sound.
06:18Of course, typewriters are still used, whether by those with a fondness for old technology or in countries without reliable electrical power.
06:24But in most places, typewriters have long been made obsolete with the advent of computers.
06:29Keyboards are nice and all, and they still retain that classic QWERTY layout that typewriters introduced, but they just aren't the same.
06:37In November of 2012, the self-proclaimed last typewriter made in the UK was produced by Brother and given to the London Science Museum.
06:44End of an era.
06:46I found this typewriter next to the courtyard dumpster, an old Underwood 5 with original carriage return.
06:54Number 22.
06:55Compaq.
06:56Maybe it's time to upgrade your old computer.
06:58Step up to a Compaq Casario by HP.
07:01There were few tech companies bigger in the 1990s than Compaq.
07:05Just goes to show you that anyone can go down.
07:08This business was once the largest supplier of PC systems and was widely known for making IBM PC compatible computers.
07:14Unfortunately, the early 2000s was a very difficult time for Compaq, and they could not compete with their main rival, Dell.
07:21Dell overtook Compaq as the biggest supplier of PCs, and the bursting of the dotcom bubble essentially killed the company for good.
07:28It was bought by Hewlett-Packard in 2002 and remained as a brand of that company until 2013, when it was made defunct in the United States.
07:36Just three years after making the biggest acquisition ever in the computer industry, that company threw in the towel, agreeing to sell itself to Hewlett-Packard where its remnants remain today.
07:46Number 21.
07:48Physical encyclopedias.
07:49Do you currently own a set of encyclopedias?
07:52No, no. But try the classifieds.
07:54People sell everything in there.
07:56We often take for granted just how useful the internet is.
07:59You want to know everything there is to know about, I don't know, horses?
08:02Clear an afternoon, move your fingers a couple of times, and read to your heart's content.
08:06That convenience was unheard of just a couple of decades ago.
08:10Encyclopedias were fun and all, but they were large, heavy, inconvenient, and took up a ton of space in your home.
08:17That is, even if you had a personal set and didn't rely on the library for them.
08:21Encyclopedias have been around for centuries, and they still exist in different forms.
08:25But those forms are mostly online.
08:27Sorry to say, but there's a little place for physical encyclopedias in our increasingly digital age.
08:32Now, what do you know about vulcanized rubber?
08:36Spock's birth control.
08:40You need these books.
08:41Number 20.
08:43Laserdisc.
08:43Consumer reporter Pat McConaughey is here with a look at the latest electronic wonder.
08:48Despite being huge in Japan and Southeast Asia, Laserdisc never really took off in North America.
08:53While it offered better quality than VHS, the latter stomped Laserdisc in the home video market,
08:58largely owing to the fact that it was cheaper and could record live TV, which Laserdisc could not.
09:04Still, Laserdisc found its niche, especially amongst film enthusiasts who loved its unparalleled video and audio quality and special features.
09:11It also influenced the development of DVDs, which supplanted VHS in the early 2000s.
09:16The last movie on Laserdisc was released in 2001, and the format was completely abandoned by 2009.
09:22Filmmakers and film fans have embraced this format, but only in the last couple of years has it really started to take off.
09:30Number 19.
09:31Kudos.
09:33It's hard to go wrong with a good, old-fashioned granola bar, but the real kicker is that Kudos bars were all a part of a sugary, well-balanced breakfast.
09:45While they definitely had more flavor than nutrition, that didn't stop them from becoming a staple breakfast treat in the 80s and 90s.
09:53Still, over time, their name recognition started to dwindle, then in 2017, a comment on the company's Facebook page confirmed that Kudos bars were officially discontinued.
10:02Given the unceremonious nature of its goodbye, we aren't crossing our fingers for a relaunch anytime soon, but you gotta give it kudos for one thing, that theme song never gets old.
10:14Number 18.
10:16PB Crisps.
10:17Since their mascot is an actual peanut, it's safe to say Planters pretty much corners the market on all things nuts.
10:22As if to prove it, they entered the 90s by introducing a whole new way to enjoy their product.
10:26Enter PB Crisps, the so-called peanut butter with a crunch.
10:35The cream-filled cookies were a massive hit, at least for the people who tried them.
10:39The crisp disappeared after just three years on shelves, with no official explanation as to why.
10:44That hasn't stopped people from talking about them, though.
10:51To this day, fans are still clamoring for a return of PB Crisps.
10:55There's even a website for it and everything.
10:57Number 17.
10:59CD Binders.
11:00I got you something.
11:02It's called a CD player.
11:04Cost me like 700 bucks, but the sound quality's outstanding.
11:08Oh, CDs, you had a good run.
11:11The aforementioned Laserdiscs also influenced the development of CDs,
11:15which were all the rage from the mid-80s to their slow dissolution throughout the 2000s.
11:19To organize their music collections, many people used cute little binders full of plastic sleeves.
11:24These binders kept things neat and were easily browsable.
11:27However, with the demise of the CD came the demise of CD binders.
11:31It's a shame, because scrolling through our phones has nothing on the satisfaction of flipping through a binder.
11:36Honey, I'm gonna save you some time. 200 CDs? No, one of them in the right case.
11:40Number 16.
11:41Delia's catalog.
11:42Even by today's standards, having the latest and greatest fashion trends sent right to your door is a pretty compelling offer.
11:48In the 90s, it was practically a must-have.
11:51Delia's catalog presented itself as more of a magazine than of a store.
11:55And that novel approach gave it a chokehold on the decade's fashion sense.
11:59Because there was little to no competition in the teen market, Delia's was able to thrive.
12:03But since the novelty of catalog orders wore off, the brand was left without anything to stand on.
12:08Later, when online shopping officially took over, Delia's once-famous catalog quietly went out of print.
12:14The company's product is still around today, just without the paper version, or the brand recognition.
12:19With crop tops, corsets, lingerie-inspired pieces, and micro-miniskirts,
12:23the Delia's today is a far cry from the tween-friendly brand it started at.
12:28Number 15.
12:29PDAs.
12:30For as cool as a personal digital assistant sounds, there's just no need for one anymore.
12:36The personal digital assistant from Sharp.
12:38Everything that made it unique in the 80s is now commonplace in basically any smart device on the market.
12:43Internet access, messaging, reminders, smartphones and computers do all of that, and so much more.
12:49The steady decline of PDA sales reflects as much.
12:51Just ask Apple.
12:53Their entire company almost went under after banking hard on the Apple Newton.
12:57Hey, Dolph, take a memo on your Newton.
12:59Beat up Martin.
13:01Bah!
13:02It also served as a cautionary tale for their competitors,
13:05most of whom have since abandoned their PDA lines.
13:08Fortunately, the tech went to good use,
13:10and several of those companies began manufacturing cell phones instead.
13:14Number 14.
13:15Netscape Navigator.
13:17This wasn't just a web browser.
13:19This was THE web browser.
13:21It seemed as if nothing could stop the driving force on the web browser marketplace that was Netscape.
13:29Netscape Navigator's intuitive user interface helped popularize Internet use,
13:33and the company was rewarded for that with incredible word of mouth.
13:36But every industry needs some healthy competition,
13:39and soon enough, Microsoft entered the ring with Internet Explorer.
13:43Accompanied by PC bundles and an unprecedented marketing blitz,
13:46the new browser utterly destroyed Netscape's rule.
13:49In fact, Microsoft's launch was so aggressive,
13:52the U.S. Court of Law officially called it an illegal monopoly.
13:55But by then, the damage was already done.
13:57Netscape Navigator never earned back its audience,
14:00and officially went off the grid in 2008.
14:03Did you know you were still using Netscape Navigator?
14:06Number 13.
14:07Orbitz.
14:08On paper, this infamous drink doesn't sound too bad.
14:11It was non-carbonated, relatively healthy,
14:14and even had several different fruit flavors.
14:16Well, first off, we have Vanilla Orange.
14:20However, the real issue had never been with Orbitz.
14:24However, the real issue had nothing to do with the drink's taste.
14:27It was that Orbitz wasn't fully liquid.
14:29See, the entire pitch is that Orbitz are small, gelatinous orbs that dissolve in your mouth.
14:34Everybody was picking it up, checking it out.
14:37As you can imagine, people didn't like having to eat their drink.
14:40Orbitz were reviewed poorly and sold even worse.
14:43To put it into perspective, they only lasted a single,
14:46measly year into production before going AWOL.
14:48These days, the only place to find an Orbitz is from a collector.
14:52I do wish Orbitz would come back,
14:54but knowing full well the capabilities of Clearly Canadian at the moment,
15:01it's not gonna happen.
15:03Number 12.
15:04Floppy disks.
15:05In 1996, there were an estimated 5 billion of these flimsy disks in use.
15:10And that's just counting the standard version.
15:12Come on, guys!
15:14I thought you knew better. Don't copy that floppy!
15:17And yet, by 2007, floppy disks were already collecting dust.
15:21The culprit behind their sharp decline in sales is primarily USB drives.
15:25Oh, and memory cards.
15:27Then cloud storage.
15:28Floppy disks simply weren't made to keep up with the rapid influx in memory technology.
15:32If anything, they took up more space than they saved.
15:35The manufacturing of the diskettes is over.
15:37And so all of the diskettes that will be made have been made.
15:41Their legacy isn't all doom and gloom, though.
15:43In order to make the transition easier on consumers,
15:45several computing companies use the floppy disk image as their save icon.
15:49So, really, it's like they're still with us.
15:51Everything was much easier when it was just floppy disks.
15:53Number 11, 3G phones.
15:55The third generation of smartphones had a lot of winners.
15:58The iPhone 5, the Galaxy S9, and the Google Pixel 2, just to name a few.
16:03But, as with any growing industry,
16:05there will always be a day where one era powers off so another can click on.
16:09It's not like 3G devices got cancelled or anything.
16:11It's just that their framework needed to be upgraded to match the newest standards.
16:15After all, why bother keeping 3G around when 4G is technologically superior?
16:20Not to mention 5G.
16:22As a result of the industry's innovations,
16:24most third generation phones lost support by the end of 2024.
16:28And that's if they haven't already.
16:30Number 10, answering machines.
16:32It's not really fair to say that answering machines don't exist anymore.
16:35Rather, they just don't sell as well as they used to.
16:38Or really at all.
16:44It's tragic because their cousin, the voicemail,
16:46is still a very prevalent part of cellular communication.
16:49But the silver bullet of answering machines
16:51is that they're specifically tied to a person's home landline.
16:54Since those are quickly becoming extinct,
16:56the answering machine is going down with them.
17:04Technically, you can still call any of them up
17:06and get the same voicemail-like message.
17:08But unless there's a major change in the market,
17:10answering machines are not long for the tech world.
17:13Believe it or not, I'm not home.
17:17Number 9, Kodak cameras.
17:20This Kodak moment ended in a camera flash.
17:22Even though they were the ones to develop
17:24the first self-contained digital camera,
17:26the company's higher-ups were extremely hesitant
17:28to shift their brand away from film rolls.
17:30The most accurate, realistic color in print film is here.
17:34That proved to be a fatal error.
17:36And by the time Kodak started playing catch-up,
17:38the digital market had already left them in the dust.
17:40Following a decade of rocky finances,
17:42the company officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012.
17:50Thankfully, there's a happy ending for Kodak.
17:52The brand emerged from their financial woes
17:54with a new focus on printing,
17:56supplying film, and later, pharmaceuticals.
17:58But the same can't be said for their camera production.
18:01Number 8, Walkman.
18:03Way back when, Sony built a product
18:05based on the idea of cassettes on the go,
18:07and the industry hasn't been the same since.
18:12The Walkman proved to be so absurdly popular,
18:15it became ubiquitous with the very concept of portable music.
18:18You just leave it all up to me!
18:22Including Sony's own Discman line.
18:24It's to the point that the word revolutionary
18:26doesn't feel like it does the Walkman justice.
18:28While it was inevitably overtaken by the rise of smartphones,
18:31this portable player still lives on
18:33as an iconic piece of 20th-century pop culture.
18:36The incredible-sounding Super Walkman
18:39Sure, it ended production in 2010,
18:42but with over 200 million units made,
18:44odds are the Walkman's legacy
18:46won't be forgotten any time soon.
18:48Number 7, Tab.
18:50Surprisingly enough, the Coca-Cola company's
18:52first-ever diet drink wasn't actually Diet Coke.
18:55It was Tab, a sugarless soda marketed to those
18:58who wanted to, quote, unquote,
19:00keep tabs on their weight.
19:04As one of the first beverages to tap into the diet market,
19:07Tab was an instant success.
19:09But it came under friendly fire
19:11when the Coca-Cola company introduced Diet Coke in 1982.
19:14Just like that, Tab lost its only claim to fame.
19:17However, its passionate audience
19:19was enough to keep it around for almost another 40 years.
19:22But despite their efforts,
19:24the drink shipped its last case in 2020.
19:26Coke hasn't kept Tabs on it since.
19:28Number 6, Phone Booths.
19:31If you're looking on the side of busy roads,
19:34you're more likely to come across
19:37a Wi-Fi hotspot than a phone booth.
19:39Quite frankly, the change has been a long time coming.
19:42Ever since smartphones became the communication standard,
19:45payphones have been left in a dire place.
19:47As you can imagine, it's even worse for phone booths.
19:50Almost every single one in the United States
19:52has been torn up or converted.
19:54And that's getting off lucky compared to some other countries.
19:57In Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and more,
20:00you couldn't find a working phone booth
20:02even if you wanted to.
20:04At this rate, it'd only be a few years
20:06before phone booths stopped ringing worldwide.
20:08What were they used for?
20:09In New York?
20:10Bathrooms.
20:11Number 5, Pontiacs.
20:13General Motors revved up a lot of cars in the 20th century.
20:16So much so that they could afford to sell their Pontiac brands
20:19as less of a vehicle and more of a lifestyle.
20:22The 65 Pontiac GTO.
20:24It's the sweetest car.
20:26In the late 50s specifically,
20:28this type of car was a status symbol.
20:30But as the years went on,
20:32it became a symbol that people cared less and less about.
20:34Pontiac had restructured before to great success.
20:37And they might have been able to do it again
20:39if not for the economic crash of 2008.
20:41Up against intense financial pressure,
20:43GM gave Pontiac one last lap
20:45before retiring it for good in 2010.
20:47Pontiac, fuel for the soul.
20:49Number 4, BlackBerry phones.
20:51Before Android and iOS dominated the cell phone space,
20:54there was a third contender in the ring.
20:56For much of the mid to late 2000s,
20:58Research & Motion's BlackBerry
21:00was the most popular smartphone brand in the US.
21:02And it wasn't close.
21:03Actually, there was four.
21:05But Sony's Ericsson phones failed to put up much of a fight.
21:07BlackBerry, on the other hand,
21:09was a worthwhile rival during the 2000s.
21:11What are you calling it?
21:13It's called a BlackBerry.
21:15Their name recognition was second to none.
21:17And they had the slick product to back it up,
21:19at least at first.
21:21Unfortunately, they couldn't evolve fast enough
21:23to match the ever-changing landscape.
21:25Introducing the new BlackBerry Classic
21:27with more power and control than ever before.
21:29As Android and iOS flourished into the 2010s,
21:32BlackBerry lost almost three quarters of its sales numbers.
21:34Their last product came out in 2018,
21:36and no one's heard anything from them since.
21:38Love is all you need.
21:40Love is all you need.
21:42Number three, VCR.
21:44They didn't call it appointment television for nothing.
21:47Muriel, you're missing your favorite show.
21:49For decades, if you wanted to watch something on TV,
21:52you had to be in the right place, at the right time,
21:54on the right channel.
21:56Then, out of nowhere, came the VCR.
21:58Suddenly, all it took was a handy VHS tape,
22:02and you could record anything on TV for future viewing.
22:04Suppose it's over three hours.
22:06Relax, Panasonic VHS tapes up to four hours
22:09of sports movie specials on one cassette.
22:12It completely changed the game,
22:14and immediately, everybody wanted in on the profit.
22:16In came DVDs, which were easier, cheaper,
22:19and more reliable than VHS tapes.
22:21When that sank, the need for video cassette players went with it.
22:24The very last VCR manufacturer ceased production in 2016.
22:28Have you ever heard of a VCR?
22:30No, I haven't.
22:31Number two, MP3 players.
22:33The music business is a tough place to stay relevant in.
22:35Case in point, Microsoft's epic failure in the Zune.
22:38Don't tell me this is Zune bad.
22:40But for every one of those, there was the iPod,
22:43a music player that just did everything right.
22:51And yet, even that couldn't stay afloat forever.
22:53The story's the same all around.
22:55They all failed to stay relevant.
22:57Just as soon as MP3 players reached their stride,
23:00smartphones had developed enough to do the exact same thing.
23:02The iPhone eclipsing the iPod is a good metaphor
23:05for what happened to just about every MP3 player on the market.
23:08Nobody needed them anymore.
23:10And that's that.
23:11Tunes, got my old iPod.
23:13We can rock it.
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23:30Number one, Internet Explorer.
23:32From Netscape Navigator's ashes,
23:34Microsoft grew a web browser with a legacy that speaks for itself.
23:38Internet Explorer was a fixture on nearly all Windows PCs
23:42from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.
23:45At its peak, Internet Explorer had an absolute gargantuan 95% market share.
23:50If that doesn't speak to its status, nothing will.
23:53Unfortunately for Microsoft, the browser war didn't end there.
23:56You see, Microsoft tried to set its early versions of IE apart from its competitors
24:01by focusing on adding new features
24:04rather than simply trying to make the browser as fast as possible.
24:08Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari all entered the fray in the coming years,
24:12each taking a noticeable chunk out of Internet Explorer's user base.
24:15So with that, IE's market share dropped precipitously.
24:19And yet, Microsoft still didn't seem to be seriously trying to address the problem.
24:25Eventually, the once-mighty browser was forced to cut its losses
24:28and relaunch as the new and improved Microsoft Edge.
24:31Given how quickly it lost support among both users and developers,
24:34it's clear that Internet Explorer 12 isn't coming anytime soon.
24:37Do you miss any of these products?
24:39Let us know in the comments below.
24:41You know, I sometimes forget you've missed out on the last 30 years.
24:44Do you agree with our picks?
24:46Check out this other recent clip from MsMojo.
24:48And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
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