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iPad
In 2010, the iPad ushered in an entirely new category of computing devices. When it was released, many thought it was an expensive luxury device that fits somewhere between a laptop and a smartphone. As with many Apple products, it wore us down over time: today there's a healthy tablet market that continues to find new uses—both work and play—for what at its core is simply a large, portable touch screen. -
Oculus VR
The virtual reality headset market as we know it began in 2012 with Oculus. Consumer VR headsets haven't yet taken the world by storm, in part because they initially needed to be tethered to pricey gaming PCs. But standalone VR headsets are improving, and the market "is expected to expand drastically in the coming years," according to Statista, from $16.8 billion in 2019 to $160 billion in 2023. -
Ethereum
Bitcoin's genesis came just before this decade in 2009, but the complexity and evolving legacy of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is also intertwined with Ethereum, which was first proposed by creator Vitalik Buterin in 2013; the initial release came in 2015. -
Apple Watch
The Apple Watch wasn't the first smartwatch, but it reset the wearables market and has slowly carved out a healthy user base compared to the iPhone, even with all the reasons to buy or not to buy the wrist-worn device. -
Google Assistant
Alexa and Siri came first, but the Google Assistant has arguably become the most advanced personal AI of the bunch as Google builds the intelligent assistant into everything it does.