Technological advancements like the iPhone cause traditional products. Even retailers like Amazon are over-trading platforms that connect directly to consumers and are displacing companies and even entire industries. Here is a list of things that are going away:
- Brick and mortar retailers: Amazon has already rendered bookstores and electronic stores obsolete, and they are now working on traditional retailers like Wal-Mart.
- Malls: As traditional department stores, novelty boutiques, and anchor stores sales are eroded by eCommerce, malls struggle with increased vacancies and declining leases.
- Live television: This year, recorded television has been viewed more than live television. This generation is interested in watching what they want, when they want. Neflix, Amazon TV, and Roku are the beneficiaries of this change.
- Cable companies: Cable companies monopolies are about to come under attack by Google fiber. They are already having to contend with AT&T and Verizon entering their territories. Cable television is in danger of having their channels broken up and dispersed into new platforms, as the cable packages are rejected in favor of on-demand viewing.
- Traditional newspapers and magazines: These are going online at a fast pace and the paper editions are disappearing.
- Home telephones: The cellphone has basically killed the home phone.
- Phone books: We don’t look in a phone book for a phone number we simple Google it.
- Maps: GPS, Google maps, and Apple maps have killed the paper map.
- Hardcopy books: Kindle e-books have out-paced the sales of traditional books. On the Amazon platform, self published books can cut out most pf the expenses of a publisher and deliver a more affordable product than the traditional hardcover published books.
- Wrist watches: In the 21st century, we look at our cellphones for the time rather than a wrist watch. Wrist watches are redundant.
- Brick and mortar 4 year universities: The time for attending brick and mortar universities has passed. The future is in the power of ides, not bureaucracy.
- Taxi cab companies: Uber has cut out the middlemen and consolidated the cab industry into one behemoth that runs through an application; no dispatchers or managers needed
Invest in the future, not in the past.