Innovation Examples
Welcome to the examples of innovation section of the site. On this page I will list some of the more famous/important innovations over the years.
You can determine some of the most important innovations by considering whether the innovation had a positive effect on the quality of life, solved a big issue or problem, created an entirely new market, increased efficiency or simply was a breakthrough idea that had that “Wow” factor.
Examples Include:
- Glass (3500 BC)
- Abacus (2700 BC)
- Windmills (200 BC)
- Paper (105 AD – Europe 10th century – Germany 1400)
- Printing Press (1450)
- Steam Powered Vehicle (1672)
- Mechanical Vehicle (1769)
- Camera Photography (1820)
- Telegraph (1837)
By Cardiff Council Flat Holm Project – Cardiff Council Flat Holm Project, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4012156
- Modern Public Library (1850-1945 depending on the country)
- Vacuum Cleaner (1860)
- Telephone (1876)
- Modern Automobile (1878)
- Solar Cell (1883)
- Wind Turbine (1888)
- Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or Drone (1916)
- Commercial Radio (1920)
- Electronic Television (1926)
- Disposable baby diapers (1930’s)
- Commercial Television (1936 UK, 1948 US)
- Computer printer (1938)
- Microwave oven (the 1940’s)
- Transistor (1947)
- Video Games (1947)
- Video Tape Recorder (1951)
- Laser (1957)
- Electronic calculator (1961)
- Spreadsheet software (1962)
- Light Emitting Diode (1962)
- Personal and laptop computers (1965)
- Microprocessor chips (1968)
- Word processing software (Late 1960’s)
- Mobile phones (1973)
- Global Positioning Systems (1973)
- Digital cameras (1975)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (1977)
- E-Commerce (1979)
- Calculator Watch (1980)
- 3D Printing (1984)
- DNA Profiling (1986)
- World Wide Web / Internet (1989)
- Email (1993)
- Social networking (1994)
- Nintendo’s D-Pad and Analog N64 games controller (1996)
- Google search (1997)
- WiFi (1999 but the technology originates from approx 1985)
- Wikipedia (2001)
- iPod and iTunes (2001)
- Personal Drones (2002)
- Facebook (2004)
- YouTube (2005)
- Twitter (2006)
- Kindle (2007)
- Uber taxi (2009)
- iPad (2010)
- Crowd-funding (2010)
- Google self-driving car (2012)
- Multi-use space rockets (2015)
- Drone delivery (2016)
This is of course not a definitive list and new breakthrough innovations will continue to emerge.
Submit Your Example Of Innovation
Do you have your own example of innovation? If so would you like to share it with the innovation-creativity.com community?
If yes then simply submit your innovation below and I will do my best to publish it on this page as soon as possible.
Many thanks, Martin.
Your Examples Of Innovation
iPhone
This innovation is important because nowadays we use it so much and it is one of our most precious values. Many people have them and they use the applications available on them to assist and entertain people in many and various ways. By Anonymous Return To Innovation Examples
Cars
They’re a great way to travel and a great way to get much faster from place to place. People used to walk everywhere but now we just drive, no more leg pain!
Cell Phone
by Joty Sidhu (Caledon, Ontario, Canada) Because everyone in the world uses cell phones these days. Return To Innovation Examples
