List of obsolete technology

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "List of obsolete technology" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This is a list of obsolete technology, superseded by newer technologies. Obsolescence is defined as the "transition from available to unavailable from the manufacturer in accordance with the original specification."^[1] Newer technologies can mostly be considered as disruptive innovation. Many older technologies co-exist with newer alternatives, or are still in use due to cost, convenience, personal preference or availability. Some people still use their existing CD collections or their old functional equipment. Some prefer the sound of vinyl records. Specialist or niche applications use technology that may have become commercially obsolete, like the vacuum tube. Historical societies may maintain a working knowledge of old machines.

Most experimental creations and conceptions, particularly in early development of technologies, like that of steam power, have also never been recorded. Technologies that were never successfully developed, may have disappeared completely.^[2] These are not contained in the following list. Also not included are spurious inventions - technologies which are generally considered to not possess their claimed capabilities, to be hoaxes, or to not have ever existed in the first place.