High tech

High technology, often abbreviated to high tech (adjective forms high-technology, high-tech or hi-tech) is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology available.

Products currently considered high tech are often those that incorporate advanced computer electronics. However, there is no specific class of technology that is high tech—the definition shifts and evolves over time—so products hyped as high-tech in the past may now be considered to have everyday or dated technology.

The opposite of high tech is low technology, referring to simple, often traditional or mechanical, technology; for example, a calculator is a low-tech calculating device.

Origin of the term

Perhaps the first occurrence of the phrase in The New York Times is in a 1958 story advocating "atomic energy" for Europe: "...Western Europe, with its dense population and its high technology..." A 1968 occurrence is about technology companies along Boston's Route 128:

By 1969, Robert Metz was using it in a financial column—Arthur H. Collins of Collins Radio "controls a score of high technology patents in variety of fields." Metz used the term frequently thereafter; a few months later he was using it with a hyphen, saying that a fund "holds computer peripheral... business equipment, and high-technology stocks." Its first occurrence in the abbreviated form "high tech" occurred in a Metz article in 1971.

High tech (disambiguation)

High tech refers to "high technology". It may also refer to:

See also