While waxing poetic in my mind about how much I hate the term “killer app,” I took a wander over to Wikipedia to see where this stupid phrase came from.

From Wikipedia.com:

A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is a computer program that is so useful that people will buy a particular piece of computer hardware, gaming console, and/or an operating system simply to run that program.

The first example of a killer application is generally agreed to be the VisiCalc spreadsheet on the Apple II platform. The machine was purchased in the thousands by finance workers (in particular, bond traders).

So Apple is to blame. Fair enough. I can listen to my iPod and still burn an effigy of Steve Jobs. No problem.

Whenever a new console comes out you’re going to hear a bunch of people talk about a killer app or the lack there of because of Apple.

But then Wikipedia went on to list other things that didn’t take off until they had a killer app. I find this list adorable. These items are listed by their technology, and then their killer app.

• the telephone (microphone and earphone) - talking to distant beloved ones via a telephone exchange
• the steam engine - railway transport (although its factory use was of prior significance)
• rubber - the pneumatic tire, or raincoats
• the gasoline engine - the automobile (though motorboat “one-lunger” engines were the first widespread sales)
• internet - the World Wide Web
• bluetooth - the Bluetooth headset. The killer application that put Bluetooth technology in most mobile phones

It’s charming that the steam engine had a killer app. J.S. Morgan & Co. pwnd those n00bz.