PC World's 50 Greatest Gadgets, by the Decade
Following is PC World's list of the 50 greatest tech gadgets of the last 50 years, organized by decade (gadgets released the same year are listed in alphabetical order). The number in parentheses at the end of the entry is the product's ranking on the list. We created the list after PC World editors submitted nominations. We then rated the nominated gadgets for usefulness, design, degree of innovation, influence on subsequent gadgets, and the "cool factor." (For more on our 50 Greatest Gadgets project, see the full story.)
| 1950s | |
|---|---|
| 1954 | Regency TR-1 (10) |
| 1956 | Zenith Space Command (21) |
| 1960s | |
| 1963 | Kodak Instamatic 100 (23) |
| 1965 | Learjet Stereo-8 (46), Polaroid Swinger (43) |
| 1969 | Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (42) |
| 1970s | |
| 1971 | Phonemate Model 400 (15) |
| 1972 | Hamilton Pulsar (22), Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (8) |
| 1973 | Texas Instruments SR-10 (17) |
| 1975 | MITS Altair 8800 (24), Sony Betamax (29) |
| 1977 | Atari Video Computer System (7) |
| 1978 | Magnavox Magnavision Model 8000 DiscoVision Videodisc Player (37), Milton Bradley Simon (38), Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (16) |
| 1979 | Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1) |
| 1980s | |
| 1982 | Commodore 64 (27), Sony CDP-101 (5), Timex/Sinclair 1000 (47) |
| 1983 | Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (35), Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (25) |
| 1989 | Nintendo Game Boy (26), Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (48) |
| 1990s | |
| 1990 | Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (50) |
| 1993 | BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (41) |
| 1994 | Apple Newton MessagePad (28), Connectix QuickCam (40) |
| 1995 | Iomega Zip Drive (36), Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (19) |
| 1996 | Motorola PageWriter (13), Motorola StarTAC (6), PalmPilot 1000 (4), Play, Inc. Snappy Video Snapshot (39) |
| 1997 | Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (33), Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (45) |
| 1998 | BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (14), Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 (18), Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.0 (34) |
| 1999 | Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (32), ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (3, tie), Sony Aibo ERS-110 (44) |
| 2000s | |
| 2000 | M-Systems DiskOnKey (9), Sony PlayStation 2 (11) |
| 2001 | Apple iPod (2) |
| 2002 | iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (31), Jakks Pacific TV Games (49), Sanyo SCP-5300 (30) |
| 2003 | Handspring Treo 600 (20) |
| 2004 | Motorola Razr V3 (12) |
The Top 50 Tech Gadgets
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