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Follow UsAcrobat Reader
Now known as Adobe Reader, this application revolutionized how documents are
shared and distributed. Adobe introduced the popular Acrobat software in the
1990s, which converted any document into PDF format. It freely distributed
Acrobat Reader so that anybody could read PDF files. Today, PDF is the most
popular format for document exchange on the Net, and many free software are also
available to convert documents into this format.
Apple iPod
At first there was iTunes, the famous digital online
JukeBox, which later made way for the famous iPod. The iPod needs no
introduction. It was the most popular MP3 audio player ever created, breaking
all possible records of sales. There are very few products that have attained
the same level of success as the iPod. So much so that today there are many
accessories available just for the iPod, including head phones, wireless
speakers, etc. The latest version is the video iPod.
AutoCAD
It gave architecture a totally new dimension. Designing buildings was never so
thrilling. AutoCAD by Autodesk, a software for 2D and 3D designing and drafting,
which was released in 1982 made designing of buildings more efficient. Earlier a
graphics terminal was required to run any CAD software. But it all changed with
AutoCAD as it was the first CAD program to run on personal computer especially
IBM PC. Advanced architecture would not have been possible without this killer
product.
CD/DVD
The year 1972 is marked as the period when storage took a new dimension. Compact
Disk Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) was invented at Philips by Klass Compaan and Pete
Kramer in 1972. The advent of CD later gave way to DVD. The introduction of DVD
cannot be attributed to a single person or a company. CDs and DVDs have
introduced a new era of home entertainment. The first DVD player was also made
by Philips.
DBase
The first widely used DBMS was dBase, published by Aston-Tate for CP/M( control
program for Micro Computer) OSs to work on microcomputers in 1978. With the
advent of PCs, dBase became the first database system that any user could easily
use to manage data. The later version, dBase II, created for PCs became a
massive hit. It had a very easy programming language to learn and work upon.
Combination of features and ease of use along with the ability to work on PCs
made dBase an attractive option for small business houses to manage their data
systems. In mid-1980s several companies came up with their own competing
variants on the product, FoxPro of Fox Software was one of them.
Flash
Flash is a major contributor to revolutionize the interactivity on web pages
that we see today. Since its inception in 1996 by Macromedia, it has been
largely used for creating animation, advertisements, and web-components and
integrating video to the web-pages. Its support for vector and raster graphics
added both scalability and resolution to the objects created using Flash.
Developers were now able to create more appealing user interfaces and animations
for the web pages.
Hamachi
VPN has been around for a long time, but reasons like need of a public IP
address and difficult configuration made it measly popular among the masses.
Then entered Hamachi, a zero configuration free VPN software. The fact that you
don't have to pay for public IP and its ease of use made it eveyone's favorite
application. Now Hamachi has been acquired by Logmein and it has both free as
well as paid versions.
Mobile phones
Dr. Martin Cooper, Manager, Motorola, made the first call on this truly
revolutionary product in 1973. Since then mobile phones have gone ahead and
become a part of our personality. The first cell phone was Motorola Dyna-Tac.
Today, making voice calls is just one small feature offered by the mobile phone.
It allows true computing while on the move.
Notebook
The emergence of notebook was among the first steps toward mobility. The first
commercially available portable computer was the Osborne
in 1981, but the first true laptop was GRiD Compass 1101 released in 1982. Over
the years this one product has revolutionized the way we use computers. It was
just the starting of mobility, with evolution of technologies like Wireless,
bluetooth Notebooks soon were preffered over Desktops. These days more notebooks
are sold than desktops.
Openmosix
Capability of processors is growing by leaps and bounds but the
demand of processing power is heading at a much faster pace. Hence Clustering
technologies are becoming mainstream. Today, enterprises from different
verticals deploy HPCs and supercomputers. Not only this, home users use HPC for
entertainment. The product which paved way for such development was Openmosix.
This was first of its kind Open Source SSI-based HPC architecture. This is also
the first HPC architecture which lets one build SSI HPC on which any Linux app
can run natively without any modification, making it usable for those without an
in-depth knowledge of HPCs.
Palm PDA
It was the first product that made handheld computing a reality and took it
beyond basic digital diaries. Initially called Pilot, it was invented by Jeff
Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan. PDAs introduced a new era in which you
can use applications like word processing and spreadsheets, and also let users
to install their own software on it. One of the key features of PalmOS is the
Handwriting recognition software known as Graffiti. According to a study, 41% of
PDA owners use it to access the corporate network.
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the most popular image editing software. Developed by Thomas
Knoll, Photoshop was initially named ImagePro. Later on Adobe purchased the \
for the program in 1988 and first commercial version Photoshop 1.0 was released
in 1990 for Macintosh. One of the most popular feature 'layers' was brought out
in Photoshop 3.0. The key reason that makes Photoshop a killer product is its
ease of use.
PKZIP
With its genesis in 1989, PKZIP became the first compression utility.
It was then released for Windows as WinZip. WinZip came in the early 1990s as a
shareware utility program used as a front-end for PKZIP. These two were finally
integrated, and hence separate installation of each was averted. As different
versions of PKZIP came, a new technique of compression along with encryption for
security was added.
PlayStation
Gaming world would definitely have been dead without the invention of
Playstation. The first Playstation was launched by Sony on Sep 9, 1995. It was a
32-bit video gaming console. Playstation enjoyed instant success with games like
Ridge Racer, Twisted Metal, and Battle Arena Toshinden. PS One introduced in
2000 is a younger version of Playstation. It was the first video game console to
reach 100 million units shipping mark only after 8 months of its release.
Skype
Skype was founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis in 2003 as small software
which provides PC-to-PC calling and calls to mobiles and other phones for a
small charge. The advent of Skype affected the telcom market adversely as their
international calls started declining. As a result Skype was soon banned in
china. Skype didn't stop here. Now you have Skypephones which allow you call
anyone logged into Skype, be it on a PC or any other Skype mobile.
Sound Blaster
Multimedia was made possible and affordable on the PC with this killer product.
Soundblaster was created by the Singapore-based firm 'Creative Technology.' The
earlier kits by Creative had a sound card, CD-ROM drive, and a pair of speakers.
They were an instant success as PC users wanted to get their machines into the
multimedia arena. In fact for the home market it was considered to be the sole
factor for computing. It will always be remembered for introducing multimedia
for all.
Tally
Tally needs no introduction to the Indian audience. Created by Bharat Goenka,
this became the most popular accounting package in the country. Since its
introduction in 1986, the product has more than 2 million users. It really made
business accounting simple. Moreover, Tally was the only product that offered
the same functionality on more than one OS. Tally is now available in version 9.
The brand name Tally became so strong that the company later changed its name
from Peutronics to Tally.
VisiCalc
This was the first program that turned computers into a serious business tool
rather than one just for scientific community. VisiCalc was the first
spreadsheet program available for personal computers. It made calculations
really simple, especially handling payrolls. It was developed by Dan Bricklin
and Bob Frankston and was marketed by Personal Computers in 1979.
Windows 95
The first major release of Windows that didn't require DOS to be installed first
to work. Within four days of its release, the OS sold a million copies. Launched
in August 1995 it gained momentum with the easy-to-use GUI. The basic GUI
structure of Windows 95 is still being followed in all Windows OS, including
Windows Vista. Later, Internet explorer was introduced into Windows 95 which
made Internet browsing popular and became a daily used application.
WordStar
WordStar was the first commercial and successful word processor made
for microcomputers. It was a feature-rich and easy-to-use word processor and was
later ported to DOS. Originally developed by Micropro for CP/M in 1978, While
its DOS version came in 1982 known as Wordstar3.0. It played a phenomenal role
in the run of word processors. The first DOS version of WordStar used only 64K
RAM though DOS could support a maximum of 640K. Using RAM disk feature of DOS,
this word processor resided on the RAM, as a result it worked faster compared to
that on a floppy disc.