12 Designs That Shaped the Gadgets We Love Today

As our everyday technology morphs and evolves, it's hard to predict what lurks right around the corner. But whatever comes next, odds are that it will carry some echo of the iconic products here. Each one of them continues to define countless objects in our daily lives.

Shelby Electric Company 60W Carbon-Filament Lightbulb 1897

How It Changed Things Accidentally inspired planned obsolescence.

At a firehouse in Livermore, California, there's a Shelby carbon-filament lightbulb that's been on nearly nonstop for 112 years. You can't buy one like it, because a lightbulb that lasts a century isn't good business. In 1924, a gang of corporations - General Electric and Philips among them - banded together to kill off the Shelby and its ilk. Known as the Phoebus Cartel, the group limited bulbs to 1,000-hour lifespans, fined companies that broke their rules, and implemented industry restrictions on research and development. These strong-arm tactics unleashed the concept of planned obsolescence - and that ethos still infects everything from software releases to smartphone updates.