First there was the telephone, invented in the 1870s. Then came radio in the 1920s, TV in the 1950s, and eventually the personal computer in the 1970s. Each device had its own unique and distinct function. Aside from a few exceptions, like the clock-radio (a hybrid device popular since the 1950s), that was how electronic devices worked.
The rise of the personal computer industry in the mid-1970s first opened the possibility for unprecedented technological convergence. A New York Times article on the new “home computers” in 1978 noted that “the long-predicted convergence of such consumer electronic products as television sets, videotape recorders, video games, stereo sound systems and the coming video-disk machines into a computer-based home information-entertainment center is getting closer.”16 However, PC-based convergence didn’t really materialize until a few decades later when broadband Internet connections improved the multimedia capabilities of computers.
By the early 2000s, computers connected to the Internet allowed an array of digital media to converge in one space and be easily shared. A user can now access television shows (Hulu and Xfinity), movies (Netflix), music (iTunes and Spotify), books (Amazon, Google), games, newspapers, magazines, and lots of other Web content on a computer. And with Skype, iChat, and other live voice and video software, PCs can replace telephones. Other devices, like iPods, quickly capitalized on the Internet’s ability to distribute such content, and adapted to play and exhibit multiple media content forms.
Media is also converging on our television sets, as the electronics industry manufactures Internet-ready TVs. Video game consoles like the Xbox, Wii, and PS4, and set-top devices like Apple TV, Google TV, Google Chromecast, Roku, and Boxee offer additional entertainment content access via their Internet connections. In the early years of the Web, people would choose only one gateway to the Internet and media content, usually a computer or television. However, wireless networks and the recent technological developments in various media devices mean that consumers now regularly use more than one avenue to access all types of media content.